Connections to the Past: Reflections on Living a Life of Service

January 9, 2025

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Rick Bieber received this commendation for his service with the Marines at Jimmy Carter’s inauguration.

It’s January 9, 2025, and the United States is observing a National Day of Mourning, honoring President Jimmy Carter, who served as the 39^th president of the U.S. from 1977-1981, and passed away December 29, 2024, at the age of 100.

President Carter was one of just 16 U.S. presidents who were involved in some form of agriculture over the course of their lives, having grown up on his family’s farm in Plains, GA. He also served as secretary of his high school’s FFA chapter, and eventually became the only FFA member thus far to be elected as U.S. President. After serving in the Navy, Carter came back to Georgia to head up the family farm and Carter’s Warehouse, a seed and farm supply company in Plains.

Though he wasn’t highly regarded as a president while he was in office, President Carter has since been widely praised for his dedication to community service and the many successful humanitarian and diplomatic efforts he engaged in after his presidency. His reputation recovered considerably after he left office, and his passing has prompted commentary from a wide array of national figures.

For instance, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on X, “President Carter, as a farmer, never lost his connection to the land or the values he learned from those who farmed. He dedicated his life to making our country and the world a better place. He understood that a life of service is and was a life well lived,” Vilsack said.

President Carter’s focus on service reminds us that acts of care and generosity are like seeds planted in the soil of humanity, yielding a harvest of growth and resilience that will endure for generations.

We are grateful for President Carter’s humility and service – qualities he exemplified throughout his life, reminding us of our shared responsibility to care for one another and the world we inhabit, all the way down to the smallest soil microbes.

Incidentally, here at Fields of Sinsinawa, our soil advisor, Rick Bieber, reports that he was a young Marine when President Carter was elected, and he was amongst the cohort that marched on inauguration day on a very icy January day in Washington, D.C. The photos accompanying this post commemorate that day.