  The bulk of this paper centers around the tension between confinement and
freedom in QCD. I discuss how it can be understood heuristically as a
manifestation of self-adhesive glue and how it fits within the larger contexts
of energy-time uncertainty and $\textit{real virtuality}$. I discuss the
possible emergence of $\textit{treeons}$ as a tangible ingredient of (at least)
pure gluon $SU(3)$. I propose $\textit{flux channeling}$ as a method to address
that and allied questions about triality flux numerically, and indicate how to
implement it for electric and magnetic flux in material systems. That bulk is
framed with broad-stroke, necessarily selective sketches of the past and
possible future of strong interaction physics. At the end, I've added an
expression of gratitude for my formative experience at the Erice school, in
1973.
