A few years ago I heard a story, "The Man Who Planted Trees", on the radio and for about 15 minutes I was transfixed. It's just a simple tale of an ordinary person doing an extraordinary thing and something that really caught my imagination and on more than one occasion left me thinking "that is what I want to do with my life. Of course, I'm not really driven enough, but I really do love planting trees and hope to do so on a fairly regular basis for the rest of my life.
Well, time passed and I stumbled across the story online. It turns out that the original (French) author, Jean Giono, dedicated the story to the public domain, but various translations have been made and remain copyrighted. The version I have linked to was made by one Peter Doyle, who decided to adhere to the spirit of the original and also dedicated his work to the public domain. Good on him. The story is still as inspirational as I remember. It is also, contrary to popular belief, fiction. Sadly.
