21 Aug 08 — Visiting the KY State Fair

All of you Gallagher fans will be happy to know that the prize winning watermelon this year tipped the scales at 111 pounds — plenty of “ammunition” for the comedian’s “Sledgomatic.” On a more prosaic note, if your pumpkin weighed 368 pounds, well, that was only good enough for second place. If you wanted to get first place, you needed 623 pounds.

Hmm. That old Christmas song, “the cattle were lowing…” and of course Jesus wasn’t making a sound. Or so we sing. Walking through the cattle area was a lesson in quiet. These were happy cows. And very quiet. Of course, most of them were better groomed and pampered than most of us. You did have to walk through their dung though to get between point A to B — just to remind you of who was boss.

When we arrived, they were judging weanlings, which is to say young horses less than a yearling. You’ll be happy to know that first prize yielded $5,600 some odd for his “owners.” I use “” because his number was taped to his handler’s behind and his blue ribbon was hooked to his handler’s jeans. The truth of the matter? I think the horse was in charge…

As you can well imagine there were all kinds of displays, contests, and what have you. But the most impressive thing of all? The displays of the teenagers who had won as “best” of their various county farm associations and the Statewide winners. Looking at their lists of achievements reminded you that some of our youngest generations are still genuine achievers. I wondered how they had time for school, and yet the list of their school accomplishments was just as dazzling as anything else. And all of them seemed to be involved in their local churches in some way or another. Gives one a booster shot of hope for the future.

But what a different world it all is for this “heartland” of agriculture and their small communities than what so many of us live. It is all too easy to covet such a life and run from the challenges cities pose. But the Christian thing to do is to make wherever you are living the closest thing to a Garden of Eden as possible. And if that means bringing the country into the city, so be it.