Fritters without works is dead

Rolling Pin Donuts here in Camarillo kills it with their apple fritters- no other place comes close.

Greatness since the days of Donna Lee!

Someone may tell me about a little old place in New Orleans or Chicago, but I am certain I would leave disappointed. I have a hard time touching an apple fritter from somewhere else. (Unless my kid gives me one, like yesterday- thanks Jake!) Sinatra famously had Grimaldi's pizza pies flown in from Brooklyn to Vegas when filming Ocean's 11. Rolling Pin is like that. Camarillo tap = East River water, the proof is in the dough.

Remember in The Godfather when Rocco whacked Pauley? His instruction was, "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli." You wouldn't leave behind a Rolling Pin apple fritter either. The pink box provides ample protection from any blood splatter.

There is one thing I know, in my heart of hearts, beyond a shadow of a doubt, and that is no other bakery provides what Rolling Pin allows customers to experience when they go up to their window at 12AM, as these luscious little bits of heaven are birthed from the fryer. I have not been every other bakery in the world, but what I have experienced precludes that need. I came, I tasted, and I can testify. (Can I get an amen?)

Like butter!

Being a good Mormon boy, it stands to reason that one of the people I have the highest admiration for is a Catholic. Mother Teresa of Calcutta preached the word and worked what she preached, but this good sister endured a significant trial of faith.  

In 1948, she wrote, at the suggestion of her confessor, "Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me? The Child of your Love and now become as the most hated one---the one--You have thrown away as unwanted, unloved. I call, I cling, I want--and there is no One to answer."  

And again, in 1955, to her confessor, "Such deep longing for God--and...repulsed--empty--no faith--no love--no zeal. The saving of souls holds no attraction--Heaven means nothing--pray for me please that I keep smiling at Him in spite of everything."

For the last nearly 50 years of her life, except for a 5-week period during 1959, she felt painfully distanced from the God she served. Yet continue to serve she did. 

Who does that?

"Peace begins with a smile."

People seem to need instant and immediate gratification. (Don't believe me? See what happens if you wait 5 minutes to respond to a text message.) Delay that gratification and like children, emotions flare or interest is lost. This woman had a delay that lasted decades, and while she struggled, she soldiered on. She felt doubt, yet continued to work. There is probably not a better example of grit out there.

I hear people profess faith, and even more than that, profess knowledge, and that is wonderful. It would also be wonderful if their actions were always aligned with their testimonies, instead of like some who know that brushing their teeth prevents cavities yet choose to not brush.

This leaves me feeling all verklempt. Here's a topic: Does professing that one "knows" put them in a more elevated sphere than those who don't profess such certainty? Discuss.

Bummer if you don't get this.

Having doubts is different than actively doubting, which is something Mother Teresa's actions suggests she didn't do. She showed up to work. I imagine that there are plenty of people who professed greater knowledge and faith, yet did but a fraction of the good of Mother Teresa, whose faith waned.

We need more Mother Teresas out there. People who say, "I want to believe, but I am not quite there," but still move their feet. People who may have doubts, yet power through them because they have principles and character and intestinal fortitude.

Or they value other things more than certainty.  Mother Teresa endured her trial of faith, and my guess would be by focusing on other things.  Like beauty and goodness.  Paul's letter to the Corinthians (King James Version) may ring true here, "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

What a person knows pales in comparison to what they do and who they are.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents, which I will apply towards an apple fritter.