A parable, and a winner of sorts...

Mullah Nasradin, the Sufi wise man and fool, would take pans out of the city to the market in Baghad to sell. He would go out into the desert and find a couple of donkeys and then load them up with pots and pan of every possible discription and for every possible purpose, until the donkeys were barely visible under the load.

Nasradin would then lead the donkeys out of the city to sell the pans at market across the desert in Baghdad. As he reached the gates of his home town, the guard there would never let him pass without thoroughly checking the entire load of each donkey, trying to find the contraband Nasradin was attempting to smuggle past him. Never was the guard able to find whatever it was Nasradin was attempting to smuggle out of the city.

Several days later, Nasradin would return to the town alone with nothing but a rucksack on his back, carrying whatever it was he needed to get him back from the market to his house. Nasradin would go about his business around the town for a week or two and then make the trek again.

This went on for years. Each time, Nasradin would get a couple of donkeys from somewhere out in the desert, load them up with pots and pans, head out of the city to the market in Baghad, and each time the guard would stop and thoroughly check each donkey for the contraband he was sure Nasradin was attempting to secret out to the market. Each time, the guard found nothing and had to watch as Nasradin led the overburdened donkeys out of the city and could only watch as Nasradin returned alone except for a sack with his money and his meager supplies to get him home.

After a couple of decades, it was finally time for the guard to retire and spend the rest of his days with his wife, sons and grandchildren. One last time, he stopped Nasradin as Nasradin took a couple more donkeys heavily burdened with pots out of the town and on to market. This last time, the guard did an especially thorough job searching each donkey, and still he found nothing and had to allow Nasradin to pass.

But as Nasradin returned to the town a couple of days later, again alone and with the sack of supplies, the guard could no longer stand it and stopped Nasradin, saying "For years I have checked as you've brought a litany of donkeys through loaded with pans to take to market. I know you were smuggling something! And today is my last day as guard of our town, and before I leave my post, I must know! You must tell me! I will not mention it to a soul. What was it you were smuggling through this gate and on to the market in Baghad?"

Nasradin looked at the guard and said simply "Donkeys."

Sometimes, that which we seek is right in front of us all the time, and because we are looking much deeper for what it is we seek, we are unable to see it.

Each of you who attempted to guess what the theme was of the photos I posted from Feb. 2 through 10 did a remarkable job of outling your choice and most of you actually skirted, even mentioned, the theme. But I am not clever enough to make it too complicated and chose to make the theme something fairly easy: Rocks.

The qualifiers you chose to put on the theme was interesting for me to observe, but my sense was much more simplistic than that, so I must stick with "Rock" and declare Justin the winner because he was the first to mention a suggestion with "rock" as part of the theme. So, Justin, you may graze through the site and choose the photo of your choice and I shall send it to you.

Thanks for playing, everyone....