Some Journey

George Washington Carver

Do you immediately think peanut butter? Me too. But we're wrong.
I'm a late night cable tv junkie. And I don't apologize for that. I love it. I live for history channel, discovery, and pbs at midnight. Last week, I watched three back to back episodes on the history of sniping in America. The way that being a sniper has been viewed since it's earliest development against the British in the Revolutionary war, up to the latest technology used by SWAT teams. Good stuff.
So last night Stephen and I watched a show that we frequently enjoy on the History Channel called Modern Marvels. Last night's ep was about George Washington Carver, who did NOT invent peanut butter. What he did do was pave the way for peanut butter to be a viable product in his efforts to revitalize the agricultural industry of the South. Boll weevils were on the move and threatening the cotton industry. Furthermore, constant use of the land for cotton was depleting the soil of nitrogen and decreasing the production and quality. Carver's answer: Peanuts and sweet potatoes. I won't get into all the hundreds of reasons why these two crops were good for the soil and useful, suffice it to say there are endless possibilities. His studies of the peanut and it's nutritional value brought awareness of the product to the mainstream, paving the road for peanut butter to be a hit (It was actually invented by a dr. who needed a high protein food for his poor patients who did not have enough teeth to chew meat). Carver was also instrumental in introducing the world to the value of soybeans.
As a watched it, I was thinking about my blog entry yesterday,and it hit me: That's Joseph. As they described Carver's fascination with plants and birds it reminded me of lot of Joseph. Most of the time if you ask Ethan what he wants to be when he grows up, he will say some sort of engineer (like his uncle Andy). Sam is fascinated with science, though we think a career in law or the pastorate would suit him well, too. Syd wants to be a doctor, but since she wants to have kids thinks she might be a nurse so her hours will be flexible (yes, we actually had that conversation). And Noah, if he doesn't replace Al Capone as one of the greatest criminal masterminds in history, I'm sure would be well suited to a number of things. Anyway, it occured to me last night that I often forget about the agricultural branch of engineering. My cousin got his PhD in agricultural engineering, specifically in the area of aquatic farming. It's a fascinating field, really, but because it's not mainstream, and it's not an area that Stephen and I are naturally gifted in, I think we tend to forget about it. I think I'm going to start making an effort to think about it more, and to understand it. Next year I'll have just Joseph and Noah at home, and I'm starting to look forward to the opportunity to spend some time exploring areas of study that the other kids were less interested in than Joseph, such as worms and bugs and plants. Sounds messy. But fun. I'm so glad God doesn't give us cookie cutter kids.