A statue to the boll weevil?!
The tiny town of Enterprise, Alabama, is famous for its Boll Weevil Monument, a large monument of a woman holding a boll weevil, located in the middle of Main St.
The insect decimated the cotton crops of the South in the early 1900s, which was a devastating blow to the farmers.
The statue has a plaque that reads,
“In profound appreciation of the boll weevil and what it has done as the herald of prosperity.”
Meanwhile scientist George Washington Carver was doing groundbreaking research into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of other products to improve their quality of life.
The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes using peanuts!
He also developed and promoted about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm, including cosmetics, dyes, plastics, gasoline and nitroglycerin.
So necessity can be the mother of invention, as they say!
And in 1919, the town leaders of Enterprise erected the statue because the destruction of their cotton crop led to the farmers’ decision to plant peanuts instead of cotton.
They found that they could harvest more peanuts per square foot than they had been able to do with cotton, so their peanut harvest was far more prosperous.
The town leaders recognized that the blight of the boll weevil had led to agricultural diversity, and was simply a messenger that prosperity was on its way.
So rather than despising the lowly boll weevil, the city saw it as a wake-up call, and choose to make new decisions that resulted in the prosperity of the city.
When have YOU had a wake-up call,
a herald of needed changes to your life, that surprisingly brought you blessings?
I remember when I was divorced, that it felt like the end of my world, that it announced to one and all that I had failed.
Yet hindsight showed that the divorce provided me with gifts I had not expected. I learned:
- that I could suffer and survive,
- that I could gain much needed clarity on my strengths and weaknesses,
- and that my self esteem could be enhanced by the growth I achieved from this” failure.”
I believe that anyone who has achieved “adulthood” can point to their own experience similar to the boll weevil (or divorce!)
What lessons have you learned from your “boll weevil?”
Do you think that “all things work together (eventually) for good?”
5 Comments
In school most of what I did was athletics, 12 months a year, playing whatever was is season. In college ran track every month as well. Didn’t pay much attention to girls or getting the best grades. My second year another leg injury finished the athletic part and I had to figure out how to be a student and the girls part. I needed to change how I spent my time and I did have that moment that led me the way. A popular well-dated girl had no date the evening of a fraternity house party and my friend set me up with the blind date.
After I met the girl, things easily changed and classes were now more important as was the girl ( my wife ). I found a different direction and had help finding the way. Things just happen if you are in the right place at the right time.
Earl Blackaby
Earl, when we look back it is amazing how we can now see the little things that altered our life’s direction. I met my first husband on an arranged blind date too!
Hooray for peanuts! Without them, we couldn’t have peanut butter. I love it and so does my dog. I go to Andy’s and grind my own, no salt, no sugar, just peanuts. Yum Yum!
Mary Kay, love hearing from you! I’m taken with the hundreds of recipes using peanuts, but I agree that peanut butter is the best one!
Yes, Pat, I totally agree that “all things work together”! We have to learn from our decisions and always see “how can this help me” rather than seeing things as a failure or a big mistake. When I lived in Bolivia as a child it was popular to complain about living there (believe me the word “modern” was NOT in their vocabulary), but the first time I complained to my mom she “enlightened” me that there would be no more nonsense talk like that and from then on I LOVED living there and found the good in it!