Televised Farming

While watching the Canada-USA Olympic Gold Medal women's hockey match the other night, I marveled at the fast-paced action and phenomenal athletic skills on display. I wondered why far more vital activities cannot be as thrilling, such as farming or processing adoption paperwork. Well, maybe not adoption paperwork, but certainly farming.

Imagine two brothers vying for the right to replace dad as King of the Fields. They have exactly one hour to plant pinto bean seeds on a 20-acre spread. This would be televised, of course, to a bluegrass soundtrack. I might suggest Flatt & Scruggs, since they're a duo like the brothers. For solo farming feats like speed carrot harvesting, Bill Monroe would be the obvious choice. I'll stop before I get carried away with silliness (e.g., tag-team wheat threshing, rhubarb jousting).

Here's the point I'm trying to make: If activities that are essential to our very existence could be as much fun to watch and participate in as sports, music or other diversions, more people would be drawn to them. If properly marketed, a Volunteer Olympics could have much wider appeal than young women chasing a puck with L-shaped sticks. This is powerful stuff, God. Put it in the hopper for your redesign of the human race.