I hate poverty

One of my uncles told me one time that I was wasting my life, that I couldn't make a difference because of the enormity of the need. I asked him how different he thought the world would be if Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, or any of the people we all respect and admire as world changers - had believed the naysayers in their own lives. I saw this piece of art today in the U-Bahn station and was reminded again of how thankful I am for people who have the courage to live their convictions. I thought this was one of the most beautiful pieces of art I've seen in a long time. Hanging underground, on a wall, in Mitte. Changing the world, one paradigm at a time.

Here are some of my favorite things to read when I start to question my own sanity;

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change." Bobby Kennedy

"We are sustained by more than money and moved by the idea that people are more than they are told. We are not ones to rest until the missing are found, and the mission is met. Because of this people will use pencil to write down our address and pens when hearing our goals." Invisible Children

"Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills? against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32 year old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. "Give me a place to stand," said Archimedes,"and I will move the world." These men moved the world, and so can we all". Bobby Kennedy