MSNBC - Stewart learns new cooking techniques in jail

MSNBC - Stewart learns new cooking techniques in jail

"She's making the best of what's necessarily a difficult situation," lawyer Walter Dellinger said on NBC's "Today" program.

Stewart is in the first month of a five-month sentence at the minimum-security federal women's prison in Alderson, W.Va. She asked a federal appeals court late Wednesday to overturn her conviction.

Because inmates can only use a microwave to do their own cooking, Stewart is working with fellow prisoners to "come up with some creative recipes" based on ingredients available at the prison commissary."

Okay. First of all, I'm not a huge Martha fan at all. She seems a little arrogant to me from the very little I've seen of her television program. But you can't argue with success and Martha appears to be very successful. After reading this article, I know a little bit about why.

Here's the situation: Martha, a multi-millionaire and very popular homemaker personality with a huge following is placed in a minimum security prison with other law breakers. You might think that a person in that situation would be likely to be seclusive, would avoid contact with others and would mope around, whining about her lot in life and such. But no, not Martha. She's picking crabapples and (presumably) figuring out ways to cook them along with other ingredients obtained from the commissary into some tasty treat.

Additionally, she's writing away on a typewriter with her own supplied ribbon. (I didn't know typewriter ribbons even existed anymore!) What is she writing? Who knows. I don't care. The point is that she's making use of all of the resources, limited as they are, to make her life as rich as she can, given her circumstances.

Now, for my money that's one successful person. Prison walls or not, we should all take a lesson from Martha. Do with what you have. Make the best of whatever situation in which you find yourself. Cry, if you must, over spilt milk. But only for a minute. Then set your eyes on the future, take an inventory of available resources and then get busy!

Seems to me there is some scripture written by an imprisoned man named Paul who decided to to exactly those things. He too wrote from inside his prison walls. And Paul changed the world with his delivery of the message.

You go, Martha. Send me your recipie for microwaved crabapples. I'd like to give it a try!

--mjv