We’ve come to find that no other day has the potential to accomplish world peace and  universal happiness quite like National Sourdough Bread Day. April 1 marks this holiday, and after learning of its existence, we decided to celebrate by baking some. After this celebration, we now see and understand the day as it is: a beacon of hope and a solution to the world’s problems.

It’s a hard thing to really quantify the importance of an experience. For this reason, the only way to communicate its significance is to bring you along on the journey of making this bread. Only then can it be made clear: Sourdough Bread Day has the ability to solve everything.

We started by getting a baking party together, trying to find people who could really contribute to the bread-making experience. We pulled the best and most experienced friends, making sure we were ready for any bread crises that might present themselves. Once everyone arrived, it began: an amazing bread production with music, conversation and laughter. It seemed like everything had come together. 

After the lengthy process of dough-making came the even longer period of baking. So, while waiting, we decided it was time to expand the baking party. Meeting up with new friends, we started an engaging conversation, predicting the future of American politics and the environment and debating the best solutions for the nation’s problems. The conversation became heated, with differing sides getting emotional, but suddenly, the bread called us back. The timer had gone off and the unity and all-powerful care we had for this project ensured our energy was to be newly-directed toward the more important issues of life. 

Resuming the task of making this bread, we pulled it out of the oven for the big reveal. Had we made the perfect bread? Despite a plan thrown together in a couple minutes, with directions not read and nothing about the intricacies of bread-making understood, did we still somehow succeed? We slowly cut it in anticipation of the greatest success story of our lives, and to our amazement, it was completely uncooked. With the outer edge barely finished and the inside completely raw, we had failed. 

Maybe it was the fact that we cut four hours out of the baking process; maybe it was the store-bought and highly-suspicious “instant sourdough bread” packet. Or maybe it was the fact that we were cooking the bread in an oven different from that of the directions, at a temperature 200 degrees off. It was likely a combination of all of these, but no matter the cause, it was clear we did not finish the day in success.

However, in stepping back, this wasn’t true. In the end, the bread brought 11 people together, encouraged collaboration, new ideas, new solutions, spirited debate, and in the end, a beautiful shared experience. We were all united under the common goal of sourdough bread production, a truly magnificent thing. What if the world leaders celebrated Sourdough Bread Day? What if they baked together? We believe if this were the case, the world would be very different.