Words | Trees, Skeptical Optimism, and Selflessness

These two quotes, in combination, do a fair job of summing up my world view.
Martin Luther's reflects the way I am. Nelson Henderson's, the way I wish to be.

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

~ Martin Luther

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”

~ Nelson Henderson

Henderson's family left Ireland during the Great Hunger to settle in Ontario, but the promise of newer lands, free to hard-working young farmers, drew he and his two brothers to Manitoba to the Swan River Valley. He served in the trenches of the Great War, made a farm, married, and raised a large family.

Luther made trouble for the Catholics. Good for him.