is anticipation making you late?

You may be old enough to remember a 1980 commercial for Heinz ketchup that featured Carly Simon in the background singing "Anticipation." Someone held a ketchup bottle upside down and waited, and waited, and waited for the ketchup to ooze out. Message: Heinz is thick, and worth waiting for. You can find the commercial on YouTube. Just search on "Carly Simon ketchup."

Carly Simon's words include "Anticipation, anticipation, is making me late, is keeping me waiting." Making you late? Really? Come on, it's just ketchup. In the commercial anyway.

But what if we use ketchup not as a condiment but as a metaphor? Let's say ... oh, I don't know ... as a metaphor for love and romance. Now there's something that's better than thick ketchup on your fries, although romance is not always waiting for you conveniently in aisle 5 of your favorite supermarket.

Isn't that one of the great features of romance, the anticipation? Whether we're reading romantic fiction, or perhaps chasing romance in our lives (or being chased by it), there are all those delicious moments, hours, and days, when we anticipate the experience: wondering, waiting, finally meeting, wondering some more, flirting with romance until it either runs away or draws us in like a powerful magnet (shifting metaphors here, so hold the ketchup for a second).

We look at the ketchup in the bottle and anticipate its rich sweetness, the way it looks on the fries, the way it will taste on our tongue. If the fries are hot and the ketchup is cool, that's the best.

So which senses do fictional characters use in their romantic journeys? Which senses do we use in ours? All of them. First we see the object of our romantic anticipation ... unless we meet first on the phone, and then it's a voice and we hear. Later there is the first touch, perhaps a handshake (which can reveal so much), first scent (stock up on good soap, and use it often!), and first taste (maybe just a nibble on an earlobe, or a licking of a neck, or the taste of that first kiss on the lips that makes you forget all about ketchup and fries).

And before experiencing these sensations, before you know the sound of her voice or the taste of her lips, there is the anticipation of those sensations. We are creatures of imagination. Before the fireworks begin, the romance is born in our minds. Before the fictional characters light up the pages of a novel, the romance is born in the mind of the writer, and born again in the mind of the reader.

So bring on the fries. Bring on the ketchup. Bring on the romance. As the Heinz commercial reminds us, the taste is worth the wait.