Food is key to making memories

The other night my son who lives in Eugene, Ore., called with the following question: "Mom, remember when you shared your life motto with me?"

I tried to remember which life motto I had shared with him. Probably not the one about how if you get your hair cut EXACTLY like Jennifer Aniston that the rest of you from the neck on down will look EXACTLY like Jennifer Aniston, too.

So, what other life mottos could I have put out there?

"This too will pass"?

"Nothing is worth more than this day"?

"Don't laminate anything"?

(I realize the last one needs some explanation. It's a motto that my neighbor Kathy, a schoolteacher, came up with. Things change so fast in the world of elementary education that it doesn't make sense to laminate a lesson plan. Not even an excellent one. Life is the same way. You FINALLY get something figured out and then presto change-o! The Cosmos decides to mix things up because you've gotten just a leetle too smug lately, Missy Smartypants.)

(Stupid Cosmos.)

"Give me a hint," I said to my son.

"He said, "It involves food."

M-m-m-m-m-m. Food.

As my sister-in-law once pointed out, I and my brothers track our lives by what we were eating at the time.

I said, "You should always track your life by what you were eating at the time"?

My son said, "Not that one. I'm talking about the Life Motto involving BACON."

Ha! Bacon. Suddenly the clouds parted, the heavens opened, and angelic choirs appeared on the horizon.

At last!

I buzzed in with the correct response. "BACON MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER!"

"Including doughnuts!" my son said.

OK. As much as I love bacon, this one stopped my Stampede of Happiness dead. in. its. tracks.

"There's a new doughnut shop here in Eugene called Voodoo Doughnut," he went on. "One of the specialties is a maple bar topped with bacon!"