The landscape gardener looked surprised. "Will you say that again, ma'am?" The lady-of-the-house waved a hand to include the several-acre woodland she was having landscaped. "I want a picture of how it will all look when it's finished--fish pond and rose garden included. Could it look like this sketch in Better Homes and Gardens?"

"Hard to say, you know," the man said. ... "We're dealing here with living things. I can show you a pattern, I guess, but these things grow. Okay? So you're going to have to keep on planting, cultivating, and trimming. Who's to say what it will look like some day? It's just never going to get finished growing!" ...

"I had no idea I was hiring a philosopher," [my friend] said over coffee. "But that little speech reminded me that growth doesn't stop when we reach our full height."