"Nothing is less real than realism.  It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things."  So said American artist Georgia O'Keeffe.  One of my mother's favorite artists, O'Keeffe made her name doing interpretational painting of the remarkable sights of the American West.  The work below this text, "Clouds," on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, pictures clouds as lily pads, lily pads floating in the sky.  "Red Canna," the painting to the right, hanging at the museum of the Arizona State University, is an almost surreal depiction of the Red Canna flower, opening to the desert sun.  At first glance, yes, these paintings seem rather abstract.  If we look more closely, however, we see the wisdom of O'Keeffe's observation.  Whether we engage in science, art, religion, or some combination thereof, we understand it best when we probe and explore it, when we constantly dig away at its outer layers, when we unpeel it and get at its core.
     We can look at life this way, too.  We can slide through life, dancing on the lily pads of clouds, reveling mindlessly at the opening of the red canna plants to the sun, but we miss the point.  At its core, life is really quite simple.  All science, religion, and philosophy aside, life is nothing more--and nothing less--than a gift of God.  That is its reality, that is its wonder, that is its truest meaning.
     And that about says it all.