Crusty Old Cake Pan

  There are times that I am totally bemused at how folks are today.  It seems that since the coming of social media, everybody has to be "perfect".  The hair always has to be fixed, makeup on and fancy clothes donned.  Kids have to have cutesy (and expensive) outfits, be neat as a pin and not have a smudge on them.  Houses have to be impeccable, furniture showy and rooms decorated in the latest trend.  No one would ever dream of having a bit of dirt under the fingernails from working the garden, show a bit of sweat from pushing a lawnmower or, Heaven forbid!, have a cluttered house.  Oh, get over it already!  Life was meant to be lived and enjoyed not be put on display to get oohs and ahhs from a bunch of people who really do not care one iota about you in the first place. Who (and why) are you trying to impress anyway?  Personally, I don't give a flip.  Yep, the Little Bayou House has way more stuff crammed in it than is logical, I have callouses from working (yeah, I actually do things) and, lately, I have been known to have dog snot on the jeans..a LOT of snot.  Deal with it or let me know and we can say our goodbyes.  I would much rather have one true friend who cares about the problems I am enduring than a hundred who cannot see that I need a shoulder to lean on now and again.

  All of this came to mind last night when someone on social media asked me to post a photo of my grandma's cake pan.  Why?  There was a delicious sounding recipe that called for the cake to be baked in a tube pan. What was a tube pan?  It seems that caused a bit of confusion with a couple of folks and my pan was to be the clarifying point.  (Now don't get me wrong here.  Everyone that was involved in the discussion are beautiful folks...inside and out.  I have yet to receive a bad feeling about any of them so this is not steered in that direction.)  However, when I took the photo of Grandmother's pan, it became apparent that the pan had been "used" quite a bit.  I inherited the pan from Mom who got it from Grandmother.  I was always told to "Never scrub the goodness off of the pan".  In other words, don't be so picky about how the pan looked.  As long as it served well as a bake pan, it did not need to be up to other people's standards.  I heeded the advice and let the crustiness linger.

  That bake pan started me thinking of how it is ok to be a little crusty around the edges if you managed to get the job done.  That pan has always turned out some of the best cakes I have ever tasted.  It may not be the prettiest but there is a lot of goodness to be had.  People need to be the same.  Stop worrying so much about the fifteen minutes of fame you get on social media. You can sit in your impeccable house with perfectly coiffed hair and expensive clothes all you want.  Me?  I would rather live a real life, with real people, doing real things.  In the long run, that is what matters. 

  After pondering the above last night, it suddenly dawned on me the lesson that Grandmother was trying to teach me.  It is ok for me to be me with all of my flaws.  I do not have to please anyone else.  Let the crustiness stay around the edges and enjoy life instead of trying to scrape it off to put on a facade to please others.  So, if you are hunting for me?  You will most likely find me looking a bit scruffy because I am busy.  You definitely will not find me sitting in my Ivory Tower trying to impress others.  It ain't happenin', Folks, it ain't happenin'.