It's art class. The student potter, under the watchful eye of the artist-instructor, carefully fashions, spins, and shapes a lump of green clay into a beautiful Grecian chalice. The clay figurine is then fired, soon to be painted and glazed. The potter and the mentor watch through the glass door of the oven as the fire heats the new creation toward a hardy sturdiness -- durable and strong.

But then both apprentice and instructor notice, to their disappointment, cracks appearing in the chalice. The firing has exposed weaknesses in the clay and when the chalice is brought out of the oven and cooled, it shatters into useless shards.

Undeterred, the potter begins again and in a short time the potter's wheel is spinning with designs for a second, even more splendid and more sturdy Grecian cha…