You might recall one of the most horrific accidents in our nation’s history. Though it happened in the 1970s we still feel its implications today. What had the potential to be an epic tragedy spun into one of the biggest successes in the world. Everyone loves a story with a silver lining. Allow me to refresh your memory.

A young man is walking down a busy city street carrying a chocolate bar. This thing is huge, by the way, but he’s pretty fit so he can probably afford the calories. He takes a bite and says out loud to no one, “Mmm, chocolate!”

A young lady is walking down a perpendicular busy city street carrying an open tub of peanut butter. She is eating it with her fingers. No spoon, no graham crackers, just digging her grubby little mitts into the tub and licking it off her filthy digits — in public. I love peanut butter, too, but have some decorum. So this chaser says out loud to no one, “Mmm, peanut butter!”

Both people are wearing headphones, so paying attention to their surroundings is clearly not on the agenda.

ADVERTISEMENT

As fate would have it, they simultaneously hit the corner and each other, boom! They collide, the chocolate and peanut butter collide, and we have the makings of a police report.

The young lady exclaims “Hey, you got your chocolate in my peanut butter.”

The young man shouts back “You got peanut butter on my chocolate.”

If this were porn, they would have ripped each other’s clothes off, but this is a TV commercial, so instead they both take a bite of the resulting concoction and — wow! We will never know who was at fault, it’s a very “chicken and egg” scenario.

Fate steps in again, turning a potential tragedy into a perfect triumph. Peanut butter and chocolate, the most successful arranged marriage of all time. Culinary bashert, if you will.

Reese’s peanut butter cups are currently the highest selling candy in America. I take responsibility for much of that. Mother consistently needs her emotional support snack at the ready.

Oy vey, the results could have been so much worse, like if the peanut butter was in a glass jar that shattered and slashed the girl right in the jugular. And — mini lesson — she only looked OK that day, which proves that you should always look presentable, because if she died that’s what her ghost would look like forever. Come on, honey, get a little fapitzed to leave the house. Not totally ungepatchked, but have just enough zhuzh, just in case.

We are a country divided in many ways, but you know what could bring people together? Chocolate and peanut butter. It started as an accident heard round the world, but it leads to harmony. Peanut butter is the great unifier because it can be used in both sweet and savory applications.

Why am I blathering on about peanut butter cups? What does this whole scenario teach us? The 1970s street corner collision was a catalyst for disaster. Yet someone saw past the negative and found a positive. The discovery of two great tastes that taste great together was the prize.

The accident was the breakdown; the peanut butter cup was the breakthrough.

Our teachable moment is to concentrate on the breakthrough, not the breakdown. Lesson learned. From candy.

ADVERTISEMENT