Cows, corn, and cocoa

Maria invited the girls over for a play-date today. Her daughters are in the same classes as mine. We discovered this several weeks ago at "art night" and then learned we shared the same alma mater - University of Georgia. So over cookies and cocoa, we entered that first, awkward stage of a friendship: Who are you and where do you come from? Upstairs, our daughters squealed and tumbled, chased and hid.

Maria is from Bolivia. She arrived in America on a scholarship to a small midwestern women's college then, again on scholarship, got her Master's at Mizzou. She sought her PhD in Animal Nutrition Science at UGA but never finished. She specialized in Bovines because they smell less than other farm animals. She laughed that she was so used to lab work when her first child was born, she kept the baby on a strict schedule and measured out all the nutrients.

I visited Columbia, Missouri last summer and met a professor of corn sciences. Who knew so much could be distilled from the study of corn - or cows? It's a far trot from my major "Ancient Studies." I wanted to be a biblical archaeologist and so I studied things like Aramaic and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

People are as unique as snowflakes and there is hope in new friendships.