There's a story about these cherry blossoms that illustrates what I like to call "practical optimism." I'll follow the story with some unusual investment advice, and end with a little gift that a few friends and I have arranged for readers of this column.

Like most dads, I hope that the future holds great things for my kids' generation and worry whether we're doing as much for them as our parents' generation did for us. Our parents built the interstate highways, sent men to the moon, and restored Lake Washington from cesspool to glory of nature.

People banded together to build for the future, giving time and money, and supplying physical labor and brain sweat to leave something special for their children and their neighbors' children. I call this "practical optimism," because people believed that the future was worth investing in, even though they didn't know exactly what the payoff would look like.

Back to the cherry blossoms. Thirty Yoshino cherry trees outline "the Quad" on the University of Washington campus. Every March, the trees burst into glorious white and rosy pink. But the display of our ornamental cherries is more than a wonder of nature -- there's a story.

The trees began public life in Seattle's Washington Park Arboretum shortly before the Second World War, rooted on land that was later needed for construction of the 520 bridge. With bulldozers headed for the cherries, a small group formed to save them. Despite advice that the trees were too old to survive a transplant, in December 1964 the cherries were stripped to the roots, tossed on flatbed trucks, driven to UW, pruned to within an inch of their lives, and planted to begin their new role in the Quad.

This month marks the 40th anniversary of cherry blossoms in the Quad. Did the nurserymen and landscape architects and university leaders know that their investment would still be paying petal dividends four decades later? Probably not. They did see an opportunity to make our little piece of the world better and more beautiful. They applied shovels and dollars and we're the beneficiaries. "Practical optimism" at work.

Now: the promised investment advice. Everyone seems to think that economics is about money and business. Economists do study money and business, but we think they're a means to an end, not an end in-and-of themselves. People's end goals include things like feeding their families and having a comfortable home -- and getting to enjoy cherry blossoms.

The "investment" I'm recommending is the expenditure of a couple of hours to get in a car and come to campus to see our blossoms. It's worth the trip. You can earn bonus dividends by bringing someone to hold hands with. Or perhaps a friend or neighbor who can't easily get around by themselves.

Parking on the UW campus is expensive and traffic can be bad. I recommend a weekend trip -- take advantage of the free campus parking after noon on Saturday and all day on Sunday.

Now: about the gift. My colleagues at the UW Office of News and Information have set up a "cherry blossom cam" in my office so that you can check out the blooms before setting out. And if you can't make it in to campus this year, at least you can share our virtual blossoms.

Think of our blossom cam, www.uwnews.org/cherrycam, as our little bit of "practical optimism."

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Dick Startz is Castor Professor of Economics and Davis Distinguished Scholar at the University of Washington. He can be reached at econcol@u.washington.edu.