1.6 years— for all creatures great and small, from bacteria to sequoia, that’s the full bloom, the exhale and the hush, the blink that forgets to open again.
Some never see winter, some never feel heat, some die in the turning between.
A spark leans into kindling, believes in fire, even if the sky is already raining.
You could count the seconds, or you could taste them. You could polish the regret until it reflects nothing.
Or— you could lie down in the tall grass and let the sun measure your worth in how warm your shoulders feel.
Even the mayfly has a dance, even the moss has a song it sings to no one on the underside of a stone.
And maybe the question isn’t how long, but how wide a life can stretch between the seconds we’re willing to notice.
So when the time comes— and it always comes— let the last breath be not a wish but a thank you. Let it be not a door but a window that stayed open just long enough to let the wild air in.
All Peeps come from one place. A single sugar-dusted city—Bethlehem, Pennsylvania—where the Just Born factory cranks out more than 5.5 million Peeps a day, every one of them hatched by machine. Here’s your marshmallowy FactSlap:
Peeps FactSlaps
Factory-born chicks: Every Peep in the world is made in Bethlehem, where Just Born has operated since 1923. From 27 hours to 6 minutes: In the 1950s, Bob Born revolutionized Peeps by inventing a machine that dropped the production time from 27 hours to just 6 minutes. Yellow rules the roost: The first Peeps were yellow chicks, and to this day, yellow remains the top seller. Wax eyes, sugar skin: Those beady eyes? Made from carnauba wax. Each Peep is coated in colored sugar, built on a base of sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin. Wings, clipped: Peeps used to have little wings. They were trimmed in the late 1950s for efficiency—and sleekness. Holiday shapeshifters: Peeps now come in over a dozen flavors and nine colors, molded into bunnies, pumpkins, ghosts, and even hearts for Valentine’s. Bethlehem’s ball drop: On New Year’s Eve, the town of Peeps drops a 4-foot tall, 200-pound Peep instead of a disco ball. Built to last (maybe forever): Peeps are so packed with preservatives that some experiments have failed to dissolve them in water, acid, or even acetone.
