They say you learn something new every day. They never tell you that every lesson isn't easy. That some are hard to understand the first time. And, many we never notice. I learned something from a house plant. It was an innocuous specimen. Maroon and emerald shot through the veins of each large leaf. Packed in a plastic pouch, it stayed in a corner of the house till we could find a pot for it. Since our gardener had gone missing, it was left to me to figure out the details. A year later, I was puzzled by the plant's stubborn refusal to grow. No new leaves, no increase in height, nothing. As if it were sulking. So, using a sickle, I gently dug around the roots, hoping to give it some air. And hit something that definitely wasn't organic. Further investigation led me to discover a minuscule plastic bucket-like contraption encasing the feeble roots. Completely covered in mud, it had cunningly masqueraded as a clod a year earlier and escaped scrutiny. I snipped the abom