So I am a little late like always on catching the hype train, and it seems like every last person but me has already blogged about this topic, but I am still impressed and influenced by last weekend.
So we were visiting some close friends Superbowl 2013, usually I only watch for the commercials, but this year my husband's team the 49er's were playing, so I was a little more invested then usual. So far there hadn't been any good commercials in the second half, (I missed the first half due to nap time!) During a rare moment between busy kids, we were all sitting down.
Then a picture of cow came on and a familiar voice came over the air: "And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said 'I need a caretaker.'"
I couldn't believe it!!! A speech I am very familiar with and in fact had just shared a couple of weeks previous on our
Facebook page, was being aired on national television during the most watched sporting event of the year! The room went silent, and goosebumps went up my arms!
I had grown up listening to Paul Harvey during lunchtime and also his "The Rest of Story" as we got cows down for milking. He's one of the only radio broadcasters I could probably recognize from a sound clip. To say he left an imprint on my childhood would be an understatement. I don't remember the first time I heard his "So God Made a Farmer" speech, but it always gives me the chills and hits home to my heart!
The words and perfectly timed pictures were staring back at me for the two minutes that had been slated for that Superbowl commercial. I was honestly holding back tears as it finished! As the end came, I was proud to see that Ram Trucks, Dodge, were responsible for that commercial. I was proud that multiple Dodge's sit in our driveway and had in fact driven us to the Superbowl party. I was astonished that a company would pay millions to air such a deep and special message. And it paid off!
In a flurry and flood that evening Facebook was lite up with positive feedback. Friends said they thought of me when they saw the commercial. And I heard that sentiment echoed across the country from other farming friends. I think anything that gets people talking about farming, positive and negative (yes I did see a few negative comments) is a win for everyone in agriculture.
There's a movement for us to connect to the average person, these people who are now several generations removed from any kind of farming. AGvocating we call it, and never before had I been more proud to be a part of this movement. It was the fuel I needed to feed my fire.
In case you missed it
check out the Ram Trucks commerical. By watching and then sharing a badge Dodge makes a donation. Up to $1 million to support FFA and assist in local hunger and educational programs. I think that's a pretty awesome deal for just watching and sharing a movie! They have also declared 2013 The Year of the Farmer! I love it and am definitely on board!
Here are also a few of my favorite blogs that posted about this commercial:
A Farm Wife
Diane just did my favorite post so far! "So God Created a Farm Wife". Her amazing words are definite recognition owed to the amazing Farm Wives that are out there!
The Dairy Mom
Dairy Carrie
This Uncharted Rhoade
Truth or Dairy
Here's the text of Paul Harvey's 'So God Made a Farmer' Speech, which was originally given in 1978 during the national FFA convention.
And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows,
work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to
town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God
made a farmer.
"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle
enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame
cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his
wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and
come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then
dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a
persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make
harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting
time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday
noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two
hours." So God made a farmer.
God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the
rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the
first smoke from a neighbor's place. So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails,
yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed
pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of
a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and
not cutcorners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc
and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish
the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to
church.
"Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of
sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling
eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad
does.'" So God made a farmer.
