So much is swirling around  – the swirls reaching all the way up north  where I am and across the globe – stirring us up like a batch of muffins.  Stir only 15 times and bake. That is success in making muffins.

We’re feeling uncertainty not quite sure about following the age-old recipe, the tried and true steps of democracy  much like when I learned to make muffins and questioned the method and outcome with my instinct to stir the batter  until it became a soppy slurry.

We’re spending a lot of time stirring and stirring and stirring, looking for sugar granules on the side of the bowl to blend in until the heat of our strokes changes their consistency entirely.  To stir until the blueberries lose all shape and become a blue dye covering everything instead of the tasty accents they are meant to be. Stirring until the batter can be poured like a failed white sauce  into muffin tins instead of spooned in with form and intent. Stirring until the baked result will be small, disappointing cake smooth muffins not resembling the cookbook photo at all.

So here’s the thing.  Anyone who bakes knows that the result is proportional to the quality of ingredients used as well as careful preparation and follow through.We have the old crumb spattered recipe for democracy that’s withstood the test of substitute ingredients and trendy muffin pan shapes.

How about Friday afternoon they pile into the fancy black SUVs after swearing on the Bible and head to the nearest junior high school to grade 8 Home Ec and learn to make muffins right.  Stop stirring frantically, so much that ingredients essential for a successful outcome are flung from the bowl onto the counter. How about that?