“We are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book whose pages are infinite.” I do not know who wrote those words, but I have always liked them as a reminder that the future can be anything we want to make it. We can take the mysterious, hazy future and carve out of it anything that we can imagine, just like a sculptor carves a statue from a shapeless stone. We are all in the position of the farmer. If we plant a good seed, we reap a good harvest. If our seed is poor and full of w...