What does peanut butter life mean and what in the world do the two have in common? Let me tell you my story.
Peanut Butter Life
(Note: My Peanut Butter Life story was inspired by a great blogger and friend Krystyna Lagowski from Drive Like A Girl who recently posted a story about miniature cars. Her post brought back some really fun memories for me.)
It was my first year of college, and I was home on break between semesters. I had this little car, a Metropolitan Nash I called Betsy that looked like a cartoon. It was a great car for a college kid. It was a two door, a four seater of sorts, cheap to operate and got us anywhere we wanted to go. We would take it to beach, let out the air in the tires to flatten them some and then drive it on wet sand for fun. I loved my Betsy.
Betsy was a bit quirky. My younger brother used to grumble about Betsy’s quirks. What the car would do was kind of weird. There was many a time when we would pull up to the only stoplight in the center of our small town. When I pressed on the car breaks, the engine would quit, and the car doors would pop open. People would look at my car and me with a funny look and laugh because here we were in a cartoon car with the doors open at a stoplight. It was pretty funny. For a high school kid like my brother, it was totally uncool. God forbid my brother be caught dead in a cartoon car, in the center of our hometown, much less to have the doors pop open while everyone was watching.
When I was by myself and the car did these weird kind-of things, I’d pat it on the dashboard and say “Aw, that’s alright Betsy, I still love you, then I’d close the doors, started the car and then set off on my merry way. My brother just hated that and made all kinds of remarks and noises about how stupid that was. It made me a bit mad, but I stayed quiet and would just ignore him.
Even though Betsy was deemed uncool, my brother never had a problem asking me to use the car or had me drive him to his destination.
As my break was coming to a close, my brother’s remarks about my car were starting to grate on me. The car had just gone in for a tune-up before I was to return to college. I had a few things to buy before I was to head back to college the next day. My brother wanted to go along. As we were approaching the stoplight, I could hear him start to grumble under his breath. As if it were on cue the car jerked to a stop and the doors flew open. Before he could utter another word, I patted Betsy on the dashboard and told her to ignore my brother. True to form my mortified brother slunk down in the seat to avoid being seen in this way uncool car. My brother then said how much he hated my car, then added that life was so unfair. I can’t tell you why but I look down at him as said; “You know Betsy and life are like Peanut Butter, not very cool sometimes, can be kind of boring, sticks to the roof of your mouth and can be hard to swallow at times”.
My brother loved peanut butter. When I said that he blinked, sat up and started to laugh. We closed the car doors. I started the car and off we went as my brother contemplated his peanut butter life… LOL. . He never said anything about my little Betsy again.
Betsy, my little cartoon car, is long gone. How I would love to have my little Betsy back today.
Because life is that way: like Peanut Butter. It’s not always very cool sometimes. It certainly can be kind of boring, but it does taste great. It can be stick to the roof of your mouth and at times be very hard to swallow. In other words, life is just what it is, so enjoy what it offers, overcome what challenges it throws at you and be happy with what you have.
Isn’t it funny how there is a lesson in just about everything we do in our lives such this story about a peanut butter life? What are some lessons you’ve found. Have you had one of those moment that inspired you to find a certain truth?
Life’s journey continues…
If you liked this, check out Springhouse Frog, Shifting Gears and Dad’s Home Brewed Beer. Enjoy.
PS: What are some of your favorite stories? If you would like to write a guest post about an experience, we would love to hear from you.
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