Living: Of Apple Trees and Roses

"Even if I knew the world would end tomorrow, I would continue to plant my apple trees." That is the statement of faith traditionally attributed to Martin Luther. Some skeptic recently challenged the world of scholarship to demonstrate exactly where Luther had ever made such a declaration, and nobody could find an exact source. Perhaps, like so many such pieties, the idea really came from Goethe. Or perhaps Thoreau. It does not greatly matter, for the statement itself is one of abiding hope and abiding truth.

Consider for a moment the blessings of the apple tree. First of all, it is...