JIMMY CARTER PRESIDENTIAL CENTER, #2 (Cheri)

Visiting a presidential library leads you to consider the President's character and personality, even longer than you expect to.

"Peace" is the word that comes to mind, repeatedly.

It's clear that this took some time.  Carter initially called the return from the White House to Plains "involuntary retirement," and said that it was an "altogether new, unwanted" turn of events.

It is clear that "home" has been a major contributor to Jimmy Carter's tranquility.

Plains, and farming, was an up-and-down experience.  When he was a child, farming was a simple, fairly unassuming family profession:

Their lives were lived moment-to-moment with their employees.

The farming clearly did bring in a bit more than the average job.  I believe Carter drew this map of his family farm when he was about 10 years old, maybe in 1934:

Why did I include this picture?  Note that there was both a "privy" and a tennis court!

On the other hand, Wikipedia notes that when his father died and they returned to Plains to take over the farm operations, there was initially so little money that "Carter is the only U.S. president to have lived in subsidized housing before he took office."  It would be interesting to know how much that experience led to his and Mrs. Carter's decades-long involvement with the Habitat for Humanity organization.