A Reflection on Baseball Peanuts

Yesterday the youth group went out to the Columbus Clippers game. The weather was great and it was a lot of fun watching the game, hanging out and for some, sampling the variety of ballgame fare at the new Huntington Park. For those of you who haven't been to a game and have yet partaken in the gastronomical festivities let me say this...you have a lot waiting for you. City BBQ, Bob Evans, Tim Horton, Donatos, and the list goes on and on. They even have some foods that I didn't even know existed like the Elephant Ear "Fries" and something called a Jalapeno Holtz. But for my ballgame watching experience I tend to stick with the basics - a $5 Soda in a Souvenir Cup and a bag of peanuts. To be honest I am a lukewarm peanut eater outside of baseball stadiums. There has been a can in my house since Christmas 2008 and I think since then I have eaten a handful but place me in a ballpark and all of a sudden I become an addict.

At the game yesterday I got my soda and peanuts. Making my way back to my seat I discovered to was now sitting right next to 2 of my favorite people. Stefanie and Everest (age 3+) had joined us for an impromptu couple of innings and as I began to eat my peanuts Everest became very interested in the cracking of the shell and the harvesting of the actual peanut inside. Stefanie or myself usually cracked the shell for him but it was soon discovered that the nutmeat inside the shell was of lesser concern than the fun of smashing the shells underfoot or otherwise. Ballgame peanuts are indeed fun to smash. The crack is satisfying and the resulting mess (that you do not have to clean up) is usually significant. I understand the little guy's desire to turn those peanuts into dust but in the end peanuts are more about what the cracking of the shell gets you than the crack itself.

Life is a little like peanuts in this way. Cracking the shell can be fun but if you went about your whole life just breaking shells then you would have thrown out a lot of what stands as the reward for the work of cracking. There is great richness in life to be harvested yet many of us are so caught up in the work of living that we loose sight of what life is really about. Ultimately, life needs to be more about LIVING than just the drawing of breath. I am convinced that the worst thing that we can do with this gift of life is squander it by only existing and not actually living.

PS: The photo on the right is of Arnie Murphy aka. Peanut Dude who is considered the king of ballgame concessions. Arnie began selling peanuts in Cleveland as a teen and honed his craft throughout the years up until his recent death at the age of 61. Arnie blended humor with his trademark salesmanship becoming known for throwing sacks of peanuts to customers with pinpoint accuracy. But his tosses were not some underhand, floating delivery. At one point Arnie was clocked slinging a bag of peanuts at 42 miles per hour. Click here to hear National Public Radio's coverage of Murphy's death.