Saturday, June 6, 2009

Peanut Butter and Jelly


Not since George Washington Carver used peanuts to build the world's first wireless communications network and end World War II has the peanut been in a more powerful position. PB&J is a synergy of epic proportions, a case where the whole is truly much larger the sum of its parts.

Why should those two flavors complement each other so perfectly? And how is it that humanity had the good fortune to stumble upon the combination? Like other great pairings; peanut butter and chocolate, macaroni and cheese, mustard and honey, their discovery was unavoidable. Like two elementary particles entangled across the far reaches of space, their mutual attraction is an immutable constant. If we didn't deliver peanut butter into the loving arms of its gelatinous soul mate, someone else, somewhere else would have. And, barring help from other sentient species, PB&J themselves would eventually develop consciousness and find each other, creating a Utopian society based on flavor and texture.

When two compounds with such complementary properties exist, they possess a gravity, slowly pulling each other toward destiny. I'm just glad that peanut butter and jelly chose our reality and our planet to actualize their flavor potential. Our small corner of the universe would be a far poorer place without it.

No comments:

Post a Comment