4 June 2021 – In August 1990, I started college at Mary Washington College. I was assigned a dorm room in Virginia Hall, affectionately known as the Virgin Vault since it was the only all-female dorm on campus. Side note: it is also the original dorm on the campus. Anyway, the first night in the dorm, we have to do the get to know everybody event. We sat in the hall on the west side of the third floor while the RA told us the rules and such. After that, she had us go around and tell everyone our name, where we were from and two things about ourselves. Being the realist with no filter that I am, I said, “I like peanut butter and hate people.” A few girls giggled, a couple looked at each other, and my roommates’ eyes got huge.

The statement was one hundred percent true and still is. I really love my peanut butter. When I was a young teenager and started getting migraines, the doctor suggested it was the peanut butter causing them. He told me I should stop eating peanut butter. I told him that was stupid and I didn’t think I could do it. But I gave it a try, and it made no difference. Thank goodness because it would have been a real sacrifice. I still eat peanut butter on bananas and apples. I love a good peanut butter sandwich on white bread with just enough jelly to keep it from sticking to the top of my mouth. Sometimes just peanut butter on a spoon.

The bigger weakness is chocolate and peanut butter together. The best ice cream is chocolate with peanut buttle ribbons or peanut butter with Reese’s cups. Reese’s cups were and still are my go-to snack for many occasions. I want candy, a Reese’s. I have a headache, a Reese’s. If I am grumpy, a Reese’s. My family and a couple of old friends even call me Reese. I even gave Meghan the middle name Reese. Peanut butter and I have a special relationship.

So, that probably wasn’t the reason the girls were worried about what I said. It was probably more about me saying I hate people. The thing is that it is true. I really don’t like people. I like individuals, but I really can’t stand people. I couldn’t when I was young, and I can’t over thirty years later. People are horrible. They are unkind, treat others terribly, are rude, and don’t look beyond the end of their nose. I know these are generalizations, and they do not apply to every person, but they do apply to people as a whole. There are wonderful individuals in this world but put everyone together, and the horrible ones win out.

Since the beginning of time, people have been guilty of allowing the bad seeds to overly influence our groupthink. There are many examples in history where decisions are made, or actions are taken by allowing the unkind and hateful to sway public opinion. The best example is from Good Friday when Pilate gave the people the opportunity to free Barabbas or Jesus. The mob mentality took over, and they freed Barabbas. Today, we still let this happen. We disguise it as the media or social media or apathy, but we let it happen.

I hate us. We are ruining everything ourselves. People are the worst, and we individuals allow it to continue. I have tried various times to change my world, but I have realized I have no real power and no stomach for confrontation. Instead, I am working hard to improve my world, one individual at a time. My favorite Martin Luther King, Jr., quote is “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” This is how I live my life. I like peanut butter and hate people, but I am trying to change my world one small act at a time.