Not too long ago a friend of mine turned twenty-five and was feeling depressed that he hadn't accomplished anything in his life yet (he didn't actually tell me this, but I just assumed seeing as how he was twenty-five and hadn't accomplished anything in his life yet.) Anyway I wrote him this story to lift his spirits and put a pep back in his step. Hopefully it will do the same for you.
So here it is...
The Peanut Who Wanted
to be President
Written and Illustrated by Jacqueline Moyar
Not too long ago, in a land not so far from here there lived
a peanut that wanted to be president.
Every morning young Peanut would look out his window and stare longingly
at the large white house.
The little peanut devoted his younger years to learning all
he could about the way the government works. By age three Peanut knew the three branches of our government
and all their responsibilities; by his sixth birthday Peanut had memorized the
constitution. Young peanut watched
every presidential debate he studied every policy and procedure until he was the
most civically educated peanut in the land.
And so it was that young Peanut grew up and became Mr.
Peanut, a well respected and much loved member of the community. Mr. Peanut worked hard to maintain an
excellent public approval rating.
He organized service projects, helped old people, served on committees, smiled for
photographs, grew a respectable mustache and even tutored part time at
elementary schools.
On April 17 the day of Mr. Peanut’s thirty-fifth birthday
Mr. Peanut announced his plan to run for presidency.
Thus began a flurried and festive campaign for the
presidency. Being a late entry
into the race Mr. Peanut had to campaign with twice the fervor and three times
the gusto as the other candidates.
Mr. Peanut made posters, he ran commercials every forty-five
minutes on all major TV networks and every thirty minutes on every AM radio
channel available, he attended small town festivals and big city soirees. Mr. Peanut traveled the nation ten
times over, from Massachusetts to California, from the northernest part of
North Dakota to the southernest tip of Texas.
Mr. Peanut worked hard and his work seemed to be paying
off. On November second, the eve
of the elections Mr. Peanut’s approval ratings were through the roof. He was a "shoo-in for the presidency," the
newscasters said. Mr. Peanut fell
asleep smiling.
The next day dawned bright and sunny, Mr. Peanut woke up
late feeling positive and up beat.
He opened the newspaper to see the results of the race and was devastated by what lay
before him. Mr. Peanut had lost.
Not only had Mr. Peanut lost, but he had lost on a
monumental scale. A measly two
percent of votes had gone in his favor.
Mr. Peanut’s dream was crushed.
He would not run again. He
had tried so hard and had failed so miserably the only thing he could do was crawl
back into his small peanut sized bed and cry until he fell asleep.
As it turns out apparently most of the nation's voters were under the impression that Mr. Peanut was just playing an elaborate and expensive prank. Post election surveys found that the majority of citizens assumed that, "Mr. Peanut was taking over for Ashton Kutcher as the new host of MTV's 'Punk'd' and that for Mr. Peanut's first big show he was going to 'punk' the entire nation."
It was a valid hypothesis, but it was wrong.
You may think this is a depressing story, but you my young reader are being ridiculous. Mr. Peanut was a fool who set himself up for
failure. He is a peanut, peanuts
can’t be president. That is one of
the number one rules outlined in the constitution. Mr. Peanut (or at least a
member of his cabinet) should have realized this long before he launched so
much of his time and money into this campaign.
There is a happy moral to this story however. You my friend CAN be president. You are not a peanut, you are a human being and as such you
can do anything you want. You can
be president, or an astronaut, or a bum, or an artist, or a paper back writer,
or a rock star, or a marine biologist, or a newscaster, or an archeologist, or
a ballerina, or so many other things.
You can do anything your heart desires.
...Well…unless that desire is to be a peanut….that is in fact
impossible…sorry…
-Live Long and Prosper
Epilogue: After years of intense psychotherapy Mr. Peanut was eventually able to rejoin society as a functioning adult. He put his public relations skills to good use and got a job as the logo and mascot of a small peanut company called Planters. Though Mr. Peanut was eventually ostracized by his friends and family for promoting the imprisoning of, selling, and eventual death of millions of his people, when Planters merged with Nabisco Brands and was subsequently acquired by Kraft Foods Mr. Peanut became rich and famous and is still a beloved American icon today.
