Sources of Inspiration: Jenn Wraspir

Who knew I’d be inspired by an ex-coworker’s cooking blog!

I had an “Aha” moment not long ago, and it made me realize how inspired I was by a friend and former colleague of mine.

The view from the cabin

After rising early in a rented cabin out on the Pacific coast (Klipsan Beach, to be precise), I poured my coffee and began my morning reading with a blog entry shared by a friend of mine, Jenn Wraspir, on her blog Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice. In this post, titled “2021 In Review,” Jenn counted up all the recipes she had cooked and shared in the last year (136), and then mused upon her data: why she cooked more some months than others; how many times she cooked with chicken as opposed to beef; and how this year compared to all the other years she’d been tracking (she started in 2006!). 

I was fascinated–but why?

It wasn’t the “details” of her food choices that drew me in. Nor was it the quality of the writing; Jenn’s not trying to be fancy or especially distinctive in her writing. No, what was so intriguing was how carefully she attended to the details in her life, and how willing she was to share them and explain them. I was enthralled: how could I look at my life like this? I thought. And how cool that this is how someone reflects on their own experience. Aren’t people wonderful?¹

Jenn’s blog post felt profound to me: it spoke to this deep human need to make sense of our existence, to find meaning in life. I recognize that impulse! 

But her writing also helped quiet a doubt that often sits in the back of my mind: the doubt that anything I write will ever be of interest or of “use” to anyone but me (and if it’s just for me, then why bother at all?) Jenn’s modest and utterly consistent work–in her cooking blog and her personal blog, Jenn’s Doings–speaks to her belief in the value of reflecting upon your experience. 

Now, Jenn is not trying to be “profound”: I know this because she discounts it her bio (where she says: I like being just “average”) but also because she doesn’t live that way. She’s one of the most self-effacing people I know, and she never tries to draw attention to herself. I really get the impression that she writes just to make sense of herself to herself. She’s not trying to prove a damned thing.²

So that was my “Aha” moment: I realized that all I wanted was to be as honest as she is in figuring out and explaining the world to myself (and to whoever reads my words). 

If I think about the artists and writers and singers I admire, that’s what they’re all doing: explaining the world to themselves, in ways that help others. I aspire to do that!

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I’d like to think that this will be the first in a series of pieces where I try to track what it means to draw inspiration or solace or wisdom from the work of others. If nothing else, it will help me figure out why I feel compelled to write and share my writing. 

1. As opposed to the more cynical “I hate people,” an opinion I’m always disappointed to hear come out of my mouth.

2. I know because I hired her at a past company and worked with her for years, and she’s one of the most productive, hard-working, and high-integrity people I’ve ever come across, but if you ever asked her to tout her own accomplishments she’d say: “I’m nothing special.”