Peanut Butter

It is not only possible, but a very real actuality, to be so far removed from natural reality that one has to be reminded of very meager and basic concepts that would have otherwise been taken for granted in any other time in history.  Now, I grant that peanut butter as we know it has only been around for a little over a century, though peanuts have been around since near time immemorial.  Nonetheless, in jars of peanut butter that are “natural”, signifying only ground peanuts are used as the solitary ingredient, the manufacturers seem to feel the need to remind consumers that “oil separation is natural”.  I suppose the reason for they feel the need for this insider pro-tip is that the vast majority of processed peanut butters have other ingredients that prohibit oil separation.  What’s the point of all this?  The point - and I’m eternally grateful for the inquiry - is that society has been so inundated with highly processed peanut butter that the baseline presumption is that there should be no oil separation in peanut butter.  When finally reintroduced to the genuine, natural article it is natural to think that the oil separation is actually unnatural; of course, precisely the opposite is the case.  Hence, the manufacturers’ mild disclaimer.  In much the same way, we can be inundated with a way that seems right, but in the end leads to death.  I’m not certain, but I think what the sage had in mind in the proverb was the attempt to be “being a good person is what gains one access to paradise”.