SEEK PEACE AND JOY—OR GO A LITTLE NUTS TRYING TO GET SOME SELF HELP?
Okay...let’s make something clear right. From the beginning. The term “going a little nuts” has nothing to do with.mental wellness status unles you want it to be connected. I would argue that the self-help world gets a little confusing for my blood, and I live some challenges when it comes to all that. the longer I live and try to control the world, the more I question our understanding of the brain thus far—so when talking about nuts—I’m really talking about nuts! There are too many varieties of nuts to fully expand upon, so I’ll stick to one type today and feature a few more in “Going Nuts Over You” the musical coming later.
For now, it’s peanuts and the marvelous spread we have come to know as peanut butter.
Some folks know that George W@ashington Carver was the first to produce peanut butter by crushing and emulsifying (not the skin care term—he didn’t spread a bunch of this poor man’s bar food over his face at night. He made a paste by compacting the nuts. There is no clear record of any additives used in this initial offering and no one knows if he smacked some jam or jelly. On top of his earth-feeding discovery. Here is what we do know.
It takes about 540 regular sized peanuts to make one 12 ounce jar of peanut butter. Choosie Mothers choose Jiff—and moms who have kidscircling around like fireflies choose all kinds of peanut butter. In fact, the average American child will eat 1,500 peanut butter sandwiches before they head off to college and eat pizza and drink beer (oh that was just me?—Right?). Seriously, if you didn’t eat your quota, I’m sure we covered your spread in our household. Since. The ingredient in modern peanut butter that makes it so spreadable is extracted from seaweed, we did the Vegan thing long before it was a thing. To give you an idea about how many sandwiches that is, I measured the height of a typical PB&J at just around. One inch tall. So stacking up 1,500 of them you’ve got a pile of goodness that tops out at the same level as a 11 or 12 story building and that’s pretty impressive don’t you think Skippy? So do we have to worry about eating our way through our supply? That is. Doubtful. One. Acre of peanuts grown specifically for the task. Of keeping Peter Pan happy provides the raw material for 30,000 sandwiches. Doing the math, one acre can fill the lunch boxes and brown bags of 200 kids. I didn’t run across data about how much peanut butter it would take to make all those tasty lunchtime favorites, however, maybe you could take your lifetime supply and make one gigantic sandwich. If, by the way, you intent to hold the world’s record for one sandwich you’ll be laying it on thick for a while. To date, the largest PB&J weighed In at 1,342 pounds.
That’s probably enough context, however , I wanted to add that two American presidents have been peanut farmers—Thomas Jefferson and Jimmy Carter. I won’t. Go through a list of what other presidents have been. A lot have been lawyers, lifelong politicians, or business folks and most of course could have come from the circus as they have pretty much been clowns—oh did i write that?”
Okay this is all interesting (or somewhat so) you say, but what does it have to do with Peace and Joy? Well, for me, peanuts and peanut butter are reminders of simple things that do the thing they were meant to do. They can make up the main part of a meal or simply be an added element. Unless you are allergic, there’s probably at least one form of nuts you like and one or more candied items with peanut butter you look forward to be that cookies or those peanut butter cups. Like many of my good friends who bring me peace, they are comfortable with staying on the shelf from time to time yet showing up in a big way when called upon. That creates peace within me. Peanuts and peanut butter are connected to a lot of holiday experiences and can bring back pretty good memories. So there’s some Joy there. In the end, I’m pretty sure I like these things not because they are great every time, but because they simply show up, perform well and don’t make me feel flawed and in need of rescue like a lot of self-help gurus do. Knowing about peanuts is to know about most of the people in your community knows—peanuts are pretty good for you, pretty easy to come across, and like Joy peanut butter is easy to spread.
tNext USA musical salute to peanuts and other nuts—including that very strange storage unit called the nutshell I have commented on before.
Until we meet agin don’t be afraid. To go a little nuts now and again.
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