To a teacher who felt discouraged, because she had not seen the fruits of her labor in many of her students:

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 immediately sweet and satisfying for the one that picks it, and every part of the palm and its fruit have value to provide.