The OK Adventures of Peppersloth and Annie

Since we have some new subscribers, I feel that I should do a full introduction. Hi! I’m Annie. Peppersloth is a stuffed animal that I got from Build-a-Bear. He looks like a spearmint candy cane. Very cute. He and I moved to Oklahoma City in June of 2020 with a car full of books, and a prayer. Four years later, I am now married, and still live in Oklahoma City. I hate work, love writing, and still have a prayer. It’s an OK life! 

My husband and I met in January of 2021, and got married in September of 2021. Inbetween, I broke my knee (which ended my career as a paraprofessional), his relatives started verbally attacking us, and I started subbing full time. Now, we’ve been married for almost three years, his relatives disowned Jerrad until he divorces me, and I stay home full time. But It’s still an OK life! 

Clearly, I’m taking advantage of the pun. But it is a good one, and very easy to use. Because it IS OK! All of it! It will all be ok. Even though my knee keeps me from working the one job I’ve loved more than any other ever! Even though people who don’t know anything about me tried to poison my husband against me. And even though everything is really expensive and I cannot go to Starbucks and Target as often as I would like. It is still ok! 

How do I know? Well, I have a long track record of everything being ok that helps me believe that. So, I have a lot of faith that things will continue on the ok trajectory. I’m very fond of the story of the three teens in the fiery furnace. 

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God who we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up’ (Daniel 23:16-18). 

And then there is the story of Princess Buttercup…

‘My Westley will always come for me!’ (Reiner, Rob. The Princess Bride. 20th Century Studios, 1987.) 

If everything weren’t going to be OK, why would they turn it into such a great pun? Why would they write stories about everything being ok in the middle of terrible situations? If you look back at the history of the world, everything turned out ok. Maybe it wasn’t great, definitely wasn’t perfect, and probably wasn’t what was wanted. But it is what we have, and therefore, it is ok.