Blue Skies, Intelligence, and Friendship

Once upon a time, there was a sad and frustrated man sitting alone in his high office, looking out over the desert. It was not the first night that he sat that way, it was not the first night he had looked out over the sad and frustrated emptiness. But that night was different. In a fit of recklessness (for all acts have unintentional consequences) he opened his hands and sought to plant life in the desert.

Each month he would return to his little project, dragging himself up the rocky slopes to the little tables where he sat and strove to coax life to grow in this rocky desert. At first he was heartened by a rich bloom but his spirits were dashed when that bloom quickly died out. Some months he did not have the heart to make the trip, believing that he would find no life there. And other months he was surprised even to find others who wished to aid in this creation.

A year passed. Blooms came and went. Some were noisy and strewn with thorns. Others were soft and laden with beautiful flowers that withered in the light of the next day. But the growth did not take of its own and had to be reseeded again and again. He felt that it was time that he admitted to himself that he had failed.

"This has been good," he said to himself. "I can be proud that I tried, and that life came, even though it did not survive."

And he announced to the few that were to come up the rocky slopes to honor the end of his experiment that he could no longer support, but instead of praise, they admonished him.

"You give up too easy," they told him. "There are many ways to create life in the desert: look at us--if you had not succeeded, we would not have come."

Then they laughed, as friends laughed, and the man realized that he had not failed.

And this is the place of the new seeding--here is the place where those blooms have been transplanted and here is where they are to be tended.

And you, dear reader, you are asked to help make this site bloom