Keith’s Blog

The Objurgating of Labels!

It’s not very often that I get to cook for myself any more. Living with a wife and two children usually means that dinner menus are arrived at by that frustrating and objectionable process known as consensus. (Where’s Karl Barth and his view of democracy as ‘an wholly demonic system’ when you need him!?) For some reason I am the only person in my home who thinks that great tasting food, and food that absolutely burns your mouth off, are not mutually exclusive concepts!

Anyway, these days it is not often that I have the opportunity to eat any decently hot food at all so I suspect you can imagine my joyful anticipation when I was left by myself for a night recently and was able to cook whatever I wanted.

I also suspect that you can imagine my traumatic anguish when my long awaited hopes for a thoroughly hot curry were totally ruined by the presence of a supermarket Special Price label!

It was supposed to an ‘extra spicy’ Hot Thai red curry with three red chillies on the added warning notice. Food with a warning on it -it just doesn’t get much better than that for me! All I had to do was add chicken and water, put it in the oven and then feast on the delights of food that not only satisfies the appetite but which cleanses the pores.

But how much water was I supposed to add? What temperature was I supposed to set the oven at? How long was I supposed to cook it? Simple questions these that, in normal circumstances, are simple to answer. Just look at the back of the packet. It’s all there in black and white.. except when there’s a Special Price label stuck entirely over the top of it!

I tried everything. I held it up to the light to see if I could see through the label but the silver packaging blocked that idea. I tried to peel the offending paper off but it simply wouldn’t come off without destroying the instructions underneath. I needed to eat and get out to my meeting. So, I had to guess. I guessed the amount of water. I guessed the temperature and the time. And I guessed completely wrongly!!

What emerged from the oven 30 minutes later was a stodgy, burnt and thoroughly depressing chicken sludge a la yuk that even I couldn’t enjoy. What a waste of time and opportunity!

Don’t our labels always do that? Don’t they always leave us guessing at what’s really underneath? And don’t we almost always guess wrong? Frequently, in my encounters with people both inside and outside of the church, I’m left reminded that settling for such easy to apply labels on people, as well as food, so often robs us of the glorious opportunity life brings to genuinely engage, to genuinely understand, to genuinely enjoy.

Here’s to the objurgating of labels!