Wheat & Dates

To a teacher who was anxious to see in her students the fruits of her labor:

Some grow like wheat of the field, bursting from under the ground and ripening in a single season. But their produce must be shelled and ground and refined and kneaded and baked before providing good to the world—and much must be cast aside.

Others grow like the date palm, which may weather seventy years before its first fruit arrives. But it is fruit that is sweet and satisfying to the hand that picks it, and every part of the palm and its fruit have something of value to provide.