A Moment with Martha – Life is Like a Hotdish
I’ve decided life is like a hotdish. That’s my new catch-phrase for everything. I haven’t come across this saying on a bumper sticker or plaque for the wall, so I’m coining it myself. I think it’s good enough to have T-shirts made or maybe printed on shopping bags. It’s taken me an entire lifetime to come up with this morsel of wisdom, and I’m pretty happy with it.
If life were to go smoother, if the plans in our heads actually worked out and things had always made sense, my food choice may have been cheesecake. But when thinking of how plans unravel, kids took a different path, luck wasn’t in my favor, some surprises weren’t good, and certain dreams didn’t come true, a casserole seems more fitting to explain it all.
When you take into account all the lessons we learned in our loves and losses, the struggles within our fights and then asking for forgiveness, the ups and downs with family and friends, it’s all a jumbled mess. Any outsider with perspective would look at it and say, “How on earth is all that supposed to end well?”
Now, as an old lady, I can say with a twinkle in my eye, “Oh, you just wait. Give it time to bake and bubble, and it’s going to be amazing. Sometimes the most unexpected combinations result in the best things.”
I came up with this idea when thinking about my life. Old folks do that a lot. We have the time to review all that’s happened, and I decided that if I were to write an autobiography, it would have the same structure as a good hotdish—a mound of everything mushed together that somehow turned out and made me . . . well, me.
There were ingredients which were my favorite and some I wasn’t so thrilled about, but in the end, it all came together and gave the most wonderful, hearty, soul-warming nourishment.
That is why I’m worried for these young kiddos today who not only aren’t being brought up on the casseroles our grandmothers made but have no idea how to create one themselves. We send them off into the world without so much as a good macaroni recipe.
Our grandparents came up with hotdish out of hardship, gathering what they had and making the most of it. This generation, who buy froufrou coffee and microwaves whatever is in the freezer, couldn’t comprehend the world their ancestors grew up in. This is why I want to get the word out about my new mantra, so they can learn how to get through the hard times.
Creating a good casserole is more than using all the leftovers in the fridge and pantry. It’s a lesson in being resourceful with what you have, trusting that what looks like a big mess will eventually all work out and come together and—no matter what—being thankful for what ends up on your plate.
If that’s what I could tell young people, it would be that, because in the end life is like hotdish.