by Eddie Pipkin

I faced an imminent personal crisis last week.  I was at Cracker Barrel with my mom for an early Mother’s Day breakfast, and the menu had been revised (again!).  I love those CB buttermilk pancakes – just the plain ol’ pancakes, no blueberries or fancy toppings or whipped cream.  I love them so much that I wanted three of them, instead of the two that were offered on all the new menu options.  The magically perfect three pancakes!  Desperately, I explained my dilemma to the server, Melissa, and she immediately gave me a calming look and a wide smile, soothing my obvious distress.  “Don’t you worry,” she said.  “I can make that happen.”  There are many times we find ourselves smack dab in a seemingly unsolvable conundrum, but all it takes is finding the person who knows how to get things done.  You just have to find your Melissa.

Of course, a crisis of pancakes is a pretty small-scale complication, but it illustrates the value of identifying a person who knows their craft, whatever that craft may be, and takes pride in doing it well and in helping people solve their problems.  Melissa happened to be the repository of esoteric flapjack wisdom (which is a handy skill to have at Ameri