Want to survive tough times? Buy Ketchup.

As always, we live in difficult times. The fact that times are always the best of times and the worst of times does not make the worst any better for us. Sure our grandparents or great-grandparents beat Hitler, but that is not our problem. Our worries are worrisome now and we need help.

Thankfully, my mother taught me the key lesson to deal with our problems.

If you face a challenge, get some ketchup. 

Once, so long ago that I was a tween eager to meet girls, my mother noticed a sad event. I was sitting with my family in McDonald’s, of all places, and across the room there were Girls. Could I enjoy my food? Could I talk to my family? Nay, I had to spend my time huffing, puffing, and posturing. Mom had no problem with my age or my troubles, such as they are, but she did dislike my being a fool.

I wasn’t having fun, I wasn’t getting anyplace good. I was silly without enjoying it.

She looked down to her meal and my very elegant mother, who could make used clothing look runway awesome, looked up. She had carefully placed a ketchup mustache and Van Dyke beard on her face. It was very funny and I had to laugh. Suddenly, I was myself again, human and knowing that everyone else (including girls) in the restaurant were human.

She has never done it again . . . though I suppose that I have needed to see it again. Mom made my laugh at myself, at posturing, and officiousness, at all the “grown up” nonsense that make us childish. I have never really stopped laughing about taking “everything seriously.”

The people across the McDonald’s are there to eat, not for my performance. The people across the globe are there because God put them there, not for me to control. I need to relax. I might need to talk to people, love people, serve people, but I am not here to posture.

Ever.

Whenever times get too difficult and I am tempted to become overly serious, I see Mom with her ketchup mustache in place and laugh. God is in His heaven and all is right with the world. People are not “objects” for flirtation, fears, or fury. People are lovely.

We live in difficult times and the temptation is to posture. We shall put on our serious faces and declaim. Virtue shall pour out of our mouths . . . and it is all quite silly.

We should stop. Evil is foolish and not to be feared. We must oppose it: certainly. We must fight: of course. But we must never make the chief error of taking ourselves seriously. 

I can have a laugh, not at you, but at me.

Thanks, Mom. I will get some ketchup.