In the late 1970’s, before many of you were born, there was a Heinz Ketchup commercial that featured a Carly Simon hit song from that era, Anticipation. Those of you who remember that commercial are probably humming the song in your head right now; “Anticipa-a-a-a-a-tion, it’s’ making me wait.”

Getting ketchup out of a bottle was much tougher when I was a kid than it is now. Back then, the bottles were made of thick glass, and you had to slap, punch, and shake the bottle violently to get the ketchup out. Oftentimes, the condiment would end up everywhere else but on your food.

I guess we were too busy sending men to the moon to take the time and energy to figure out that we should put the lid on the bottom of the bottle. It makes perfect sense today, but then again, buying bottled water was the dumbest thing I had ever heard of thirty years ago, I mean we had water hoses everywhere.

The idea of the commercial was that the ketchup slowly working its way out of the bottle was worth the wait, and all you could do was savor in anticipation of what was to come.

Anticipation is a noun and is associated with eagerness, waiting for something to occur. Just like Carly sang in her hit song, anticipation makes you wait. It’s like a Jack-in-the-Box toy. You slowly crank the handle as the music plays and wait with the anticipation that the clown is gonna jump out and scare the daylights out of you. It works on me every time, I hate that toy. The anticipation is slow and painful for me.

In the game of baseball, some of the greatest defensive players I’ve ever played with and coached knew how to anticipate, not to be confused with anticipation. They knew exactly where they were going to throw the baseball before it was hit to them. In many ways, they mentally jumped into the future and then waited for it to occur. In their minds, the play had already been made before they actually made it. Does that make sense?

Being able to anticipate is critical to being successful no matter what you do in life. I believe one of the greatest compliments you can give anybody is that they know how to anticipate and are rarely, if ever, caught off guard.

One of Muhammad Ali’s greatest assets as a boxer was that he was able to anticipate his opponent’s next move. It was often said that Ali was always two or three punches ahead of his opponent. Ali was anticipating his opponent’s next punch before it was even thrown.

Anticipate is a verb that describes the action of expecting or predicting something to happen very quickly, like in baseball or in the boxing ring. In a nutshell, anticipate is the act of predicting or preparing – while anticipation is the emotional response to that prediction or preparation.

I know I’m getting technical here between the two words, but at my age, if I can do anything better than I could do twenty years ago it is this; I can anticipate, and I’ve learned how to counter.

Not because I can see into the future, but because I’ve lived long enough to know how to react when the ball is hit to me. Old age can be a superpower, because through it, I can anticipate, saving myself a lot of stress, time, and energy.

So, does one live their life anticipating, or in anticipation? I guess we do both.

It appears the things which I hope for in the future through God’s promises are based on anticipation, so I must be patient. Slowly waiting for them to come my way, just like the ketchup leaving that bottle.

“Anticipa-a-a-a-a-tion, it’s’ making me wait.”

On the other hand, I live my life anticipating the what, when, and where of daily life. I do know at times we don’t see some things coming our way, no matter how prepared we think we are. We get a right hook across the chin that we did not anticipate, and it knocks us flat on our back. “Wow, that came out of nowhere.” I’ve had a few days like that.

So, I live my life with the anticipation of better days ahead, it will be worth the wait, as I continually anticipate what may happen to me next.

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Todd Howey is a columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose articles appear on Fridays. Email comments to [email protected].