Past Thoughts of The Week

Feb. 13 - Feb 19

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." - Margery Williams, The Velveteeen Rabbit

Feb. 3 - Feb. 12

“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.” - Alice Walker

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.” - Alice Walker

“In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways and they're still beautiful.” - Alice Walker

“Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be.” - Alice Walker

“It is this broken road with pitfalls and sharp turns and unexpected traverses that has brought me joy and adventure. ” - Alice Walker

"I imagine good teaching as a circle of earnest people sitting down to ask each other meaningful questions. I don't see it as a handing down of answers...” - Alice Walker

Alice Walker is a famous writer of award winning novels such as The Color Purple.  The Color Purple tells the cathartic story of a girl coming of age while facing daunting life challenges and horrors and how she ultimately discovers her personal power, strength, and voice. 

Jan. 27 - Feb. 2

"....But there's another part to the shining the city; the part where some people can't pay their mortgages, and most young people can't afford one; where students can't afford the education they need, and middle-class parents watch the dreams they hold for their children evaporate.

In this part of the city there are more poor than ever, more families in trouble, more and more people who need help but can't find it. Even worse: There are elderly people who tremble in the basements of the houses there. And there are people who sleep in the city streets, in the gutter, where the glitter doesn't show. There are ghettos where thousands of young people, without a job or an education, give their lives away to drug dealers every day. There is despair, Mr. President, in the faces that you don't see, in the places that you don't visit in your shining city.

In fact, Mr. President.... this nation is more a "Tale of Two Cities" than it is just a "Shining City on a Hill....."

....We can make it all the way with the whole family intact, and we have more than once. Ever since Franklin Roosevelt lifted himself from his wheelchair to lift this nation from its knees... all those struggling to build their families and claim some small share of America...

....We must make the American people hear our "Tale of Two Cities." We must convince them that we don't have to settle for two cities, that we can have one city, indivisible, shining for all of its people...." - Governor Mario Cuomo, excerpts from 1984 speech

Jan. 20 - Jan. 26

"In the depths of winter, I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer." - Albert Camus

Albert Camus (1913 - 1960) was a French philosopher and writer.

Jan. 13 - Jan. 19

"Our ultimate end must be the creation of the beloved community." – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"...In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.  The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream Speech

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream Speech

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a famous civil rights leader.  Inspired by the teachings of Gandhi, Dr. King used non-violent civil disobedience to advocate for equal rights for all United States citizens regardless of race and social class. 

Jan. 5 - Jan. 12

"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future." - The Fellowship of the Ring movie

"Frodo: ….I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil…." - The Fellowship of the Ring movie

"Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for." - The Two Towers movie

Dec. 30 - Jan. 5

"All we are given is possibilities -- to make ourselves one thing or another. " - Jose Ortega Y Gasset

Jose Ortega Y Gasset is an early 20th century Spanish philosopher. 

Dec. 16 - Dec. 29

     "At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge,' said the gentleman, taking up a pen, 'it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.'

   'Are there no prisons?' asked Scrooge.

   'Plenty of prisons,' said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

   'And the Union workhouses.' demanded Scrooge. 'Are they still in operation?'

   'They are. Still,' returned the gentleman,' I wish I could say they were not….'

   'I help to support the establishments I have mentioned-they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.'

   'Many can't go there; and many would rather die.'

   'If they would rather die,' said Scrooge, 'they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population….  'It's not my business,' Scrooge returned. 'It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's." - excerpt from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

     "But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,'' faultered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

     ``Business!'' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. ``Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!'' - excerpt from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

     ``Spirit,'' said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before, ``tell me if Tiny Tim will live.''

     ``I see a vacant seat,'' replied the Ghost, ``in the poor chimney-corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die.''

     ``No, no,'' said Scrooge. ``Oh, no, kind Spirit! say he will be spared.''

     ``If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race,'' returned the Ghost, ``will find him here. What then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.''

     Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief.

     ``Man,'' said the Ghost, ``if man you be in heart, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and Where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child. - excerpt from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

     ``Oh, Man! look here. Look, look, down here!'' exclaimed the Ghost.

     They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.

     Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.

     ``Spirit! are they yours?'' Scrooge could say no more. ``They are Man's,'' said the Spirit, looking down upon them. ``And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased….”

     ``Have they no refuge or resource?'' cried Scrooge.

     ``Are there no prisons?'' said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. ``Are there no workhouses?'' - excerpt from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

     "Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,' said Scrooge. 'But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change." -

excerpt from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens is a famous 19th century English author. In addition to A Christmas Carol, some of Dickens's other famous books include A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, and Great Expectations.  Charles Dickens portrays the plight of the poor and helps to raise social consciouness throughout many of his novels.  A Christmas Carol tells the story of Scrooge's transformation due to the haunting of his former partner, Jacob Marley, and three ghosts representing Christmas past, Christmas present, and Christmas future.  A Christmas Carol, now considered a classic holiday tale, was made into many movies throughout the 20th century. 

Week of Dec. 9 - Dec. 15

"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 which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." - Robert Kennedy

"Only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly." - Robert Kennedy

"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 of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change." - Robert Kennedy

"I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil." - Robert Kennedy

"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" - Robert Kennedy

“Fear not the path of Truth for the lack of people walking on it.” - Robert Kennedy

Robert Kennedy was the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy.  Robert Kennedy served as Attorney General during his brother's presidency and he later became a senator.  Robert Kennedy, like his brother, was assasinated. 

Week of Dec. 2 - Dec. 8

The Star Thrower (also known as the Starfish Story) by Loren Eiseley

"There was a man who was walking along a sandy beach where thousands of starfish had been washed up on the shore. He noticed a boy picking the starfish one by one and throwing them back into the ocean. The man observed the boy for a few minutes and then asked what he was doing. The boy replied that he was returning the starfish to the sea, otherwise they would die.  The man asked how saving a few, when so many were doomed, would make any difference whatsoever? The boy picked up a starfish and threw it back into the ocean and said "Made a difference to that one..."

The man left the boy and went home, deep in thought of what the boy had said.  He soon returned to the beach and spent the rest of the day helping the boy throw starfish in to the sea...."

Week of Nov. 25 - Dec. 1

"Be it true or false, what is said about people often has as much influence on their lives, and especially upon their destinies, as what they do." - Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

“For there are many great deeds done in the small struggles of life.  There is a determined though unseen bravery, which defends itself foot to foot in the darkness against the fatal invasions of necessity and of baseness….  Life, misfortunes, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields which have their heroes; obscure heroes, sometimes greater than the illustrious heroes.  Strong and rare natures are thus created.” – Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

"There are no bad herbs, and no bad people; there are only bad cultivators." - Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved." - Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

"The devotion of one person had given strength and courage to all." - Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

"For prying into any human affairs, none are equal to those whom it does not concern." - Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

"The highest justice is conscience." - Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

"The delight we inspire in others has this enchanting peculiarity that, far from being diminished like every other reflection, it returns to us more radiant than ever." - Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

"What is the story of Fantine?  It is society buying a slave.

From whom? From misery.

From hunger, from cold, from loneliness, from abandonment, from privation.  Melancholy barter.  A soul for a bit of bread.  Misery makes the offer, society accepts.

....It is said that slavery has disappeared from European civilization.  This is a mistake.  It still exists... and it is called prostitution." - Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

"Undoubtedly they seemed very depraved, very corrupt, very vile, very hateful, even, but those are rare who fall without becoming degraded.  There is a point, moreover, at which the unfortunate and the infamous are asscoiated and confunded in a single word, a fatal word, Les Miserables.  Whose fault is it?  And then, is it not when the fall is the lowest that charity ought to be greatest?" - Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

"What we must always foresee is the unforeseen." - Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

"...So long as ignorance and misery remain on Earth, books like this cannot be useless" states the 1862 Hauteville House Preface to Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Approximately 150 years after its original publication, Victor Hugo's classical masterpiece Les MIserables remains both extremely popular and relevant to society today.  Due to its unforgettable characters, exciting scenes, moving passages, insightful social commentary, emotionally cathartic climaxes, and inspirational moments Victor Hugo's Les Miserables is my favorite book. If you have not yet had the pleasure of reading Victor Hugo's complete unabridged Les Miserables, prepare for a wonderful treat!

*The above quotations come from an English translation of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables by English translator Charles E. Wilbour. 

Week of Nov. 18 - Nov. 24

"'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come 'round right." - Simple Gifts, Eldred Jospeh

Simple Gifts is a Shaker Hymn composed in 1848 at a Shaker community in Alfred, Maine. This song became world famous in 1944 with Aaron Copland's use of this song as part of his score for the ballet Appalachian Spring. This lively, upbeat song celebrates the virtues of simplicity and humility. As we enter this upcoming week of Thanksgiving, we would benefit from taking a few moments to reflect upon all of the simple gifts in our lives. Shakers were also pioneers of equality for both men and women and people from different social classes which they implemented in all of their communities in the 1780's.

Weeks of Nov. 4 - Nov. 17

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” - Mother Teresa

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” - Mother Teresa

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” - Mother Teresa

“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love.” - Mother Teresa

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one." - Mother Teresa

"If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive." - Mother Teresa

Pope John Paul II said of Mother Teresa, " Her life is a testimony to the dignity and the privilege of humble service. She had chosen to be not just the least but to be the servant of the least. As a real mother to the poor, she bent down to those suffering various forms of poverty. Her greatness lies in her ability to give without counting the cost, to give "until it hurts". Mother Teresa, born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Yugoslavia, lived from 1910 - 1997.  She served as a nun in the Catholic Church and she founded a new order, the Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to caring for the poorest of the poor beginning in the streets of Calcutta, India.  Mother Teresa and her followers created homes for the dying, provided nurturing and teaching for orphans and abandoned children, and built hospitals and treatment centers for the sick. Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her outstanding work caring for the poor. By 1997, Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity, dedicated to serving "the unwanted, unloved, and uncared for" numbered nearly 4,000 members in 123 countries of the world.  Pope John Paul II canonized Mother Teresa as a saint in 2003. 

Week of Oct. 28 - Nov. 3

It always seems impossible until it’s done.” - Nelson Mandela

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." - Nelson Mandela

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” - Nelson Mandela

“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” - Nelson Mandela

“There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.” - Nelson Mandela

“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.”  - Nelson Mandela

"If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner."  - Nelson Mandela

After spending 27 years in prison for leading resistance movements to South Africa's racist and repressive apartheid government, Nelson Mandela won the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize. The South African majority elected Mandela to serve as the first black president of South Africa in 1994.  During the 5 years of his presidency, Mandela helped to develop a new government and constitution for South Africa based on majority rule, guaranteed rights for minorities, freedom of expression, and the development of a strong economy through government funding of job creation, housing, and basic health care. 

Week of Oct. 21 - Oct. 27

"The reasonable person adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable person." - George Bernard Shaw

Week of Oct. 14 - Oct. 20

"Strength does not come from physical capacity, it comes from an indomitable will." - Mohandas Gandhi

"You must be the change you want to see in the world." - Mohandas Gandhi

Albert Einstein said about Gandhi, "generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."  Also known as Mahatma Ganhdi (Mahatma means 'great soul"), Gandhi taught his followers to use satyagraha or "truth force" instead of violence to create positive change in the world.  Gandhi helped improve conditions for Indians living in South Africa and he lead India to win its independence from the British Empire using non-violent methods and civil disobedience.  Gandhi constantly advocated for the needs of the poor and the disadvantaged.  He had a tremendous influence on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the non-violent protests of the civil rights movement in the United States.

Week of Oct. 7 - Oct. 13

"You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation." - Marian Wright Edelman

"Investing in [children] is not a national luxury or a national choice. It's a national necessity...  The issue is not are we going to pay -- it's are we going to pay now, up front, or are we going to pay a whole lot more later on." - Marian Wright Edelman

"We are willing to spend the least amount of money to keep a kid at home, more to put him in a foster home and the most to institutionalize him." - Marian Wright Edelman

"The future which we hold in trust for our own children will be shaped by our fairness to other people's children." - Marian Wright Edelman

Marian Wright Edelman, the founder and President of the Children's Defense Fund, was the first African American woman admitted to the Mississippi state bar.  She has been a life long advocate for the needs of children and youth in the United States that face challenging life circumstances.

Week of Sept. 30 - Oct. 6

"Behold the turtle.  He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out." - James Bryant Conant

Week of Sept. 23 - Sept. 29

The Paradoxical Commandments
        by Dr. Kent M. Keith

"People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.  Love them anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.  Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.  Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.  Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.  Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.  Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.  Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.  Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.  Give the world the best you have anyway.

The world is full of violence, injustice, starvation, disease, and environmental destruction.  Have faith anyway."

Week of September 16 - September 22

The Kids Who Are Different

                                      by Digby Wolfe

"Here's to the kids who are different

The kids that don't always get A's

The kids with the ears twice the size of their peers

And noses that go on for days.

Here's to the kids who are different

The kids they call crazy and dumb

The kids that don't fit with the guts and the grit

Who dance to a different drum.

Here's to the kids who are different

The kids with the mischievious streek

For when they have grown, as history has shown

It is their differences that make them unique."

Week of September 9 - September 15

"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down." - from The Mending Wall, Robert Frost

Robert Frost is a famous 19th Century United States poet. In the poem The Mending Wall,

the narrator and his neighbor repair the wall or fence that separates their two properties.  The neighbor insists that "good fences make good neighbors" but the narrator questions whether this wall between them is necessary and reflects on how natural causes keep trying to take the wall apart.  The narrator also questions whether it makes sense to continue to do things the way they have always been done.  On a deeper level, this poem invites the reader to reflect upon the metaphoric walls that we create to separate ourselves from others and whether such walls and separation between people is natural, helpful, and necessary.  What walls have you built in your life to keep people out and to keep personal things in and what is helpful and harmful about your walls?

Week of September 2 - September 8

"I believe the greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen, heard, understood and touched by them.... When this is done, I feel contact has been made." - Virginia Satir

Virginia Satir was a pioneer in family therapy.  Her work focused on helping families heal, communicate effectively, and strengthen their connections. Satir also believed in the healing power of touch.  Satir challenged more scientific approaches to therapy in her day by emphasizing genuine acceptance, caring, love, and nurturance as being the most important aspects of healing and empowering people to face their fears.

Week of August 26 - September 1

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the people that walked through the huts comforting others and giving away their last pieces of bread.  They may have been few in number but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a person but one thing, the last of the human freedoms - the ability to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, the right to choose one's own way." - Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor Frankl is a world famous Austrian psychiatrist with a genuine desire to help and to even risk his life for others.  When Hitler invaded Austria in 1939, Frankl obtained a Visa to escape to the United States yet he chose to remain in Austria out of concern for his patients.  In 1940, Frankl was made head of the neurological department of Rothschild Hospital, the only hospital for Jews in Vienna during the Nazi regime.  He made many false diagnoses of his patients in order to avoid the new policies requiring euthanasia of the mentally ill.  Frankl married in 1942, but in September of that year, he, his wife, his father, mother, and brother, were all arrested and sent to a concentration camp.  All of these family members of Frankl died during the next few years in concentration camps and Frankl himself contracted typhoid fever while a concentration camp prisoner.  Nevertheless, Frankl survived and went on to have an extremely successful career as a world famous psychiatrist and neurologist and he published 32 books that have been translated into 27 different languages. (information obtained from Dr. C. George Boeree's biography of Viktor Frankl)

Week of August 19 - 25

“Understanding and love are not two separate things, but just one. To develop understanding, you have to practice looking at all living beings with the eyes of compassion.  When you understand, you cannot help but love. And when you love, you naturally act in a way that can relieve the suffering of people.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Zen Budhist master, poet and writer, and peace and human rights activist.  In Saigon in the early 60s, Thich Nhat Hanh founded the School of Youth Social Service, a grass-roots relief organization that rebuilt bombed villages, set up schools and medical centers, resettled homeless families, and organized agricultural cooperatives. Rallying some 10,000 student volunteers, the SYSS based its work on the Buddhist principles of non-violence and compassionate action. Despite government denunciation of his activity, Thich Nhat Hanh also founded a Buddhist University, a publishing house, and an influential peace activist magazine in Vietnam.  In 1982 he founded Plum Village, a Buddhist community in exile in France, where he continues his work to alleviate suffering of refugees, boat people, political prisoners, and hungry families in Vietnam and throughout the Third World. He has also received recognition for his work with Vietnam veterans, meditation retreats, and his prolific writings on meditation, mindfulness, and peace. (Information obtained from the Tich Nhat Hanh biography on the Plum Village homepage.)

Week of August 12 - August 18, 2011

"Our ultimate end must be the creation of the beloved community." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a famous civil rights leader.  Inspired by the teachings of Gandhi, Dr. King used non-violent civil disobedience to advocate for equal rights for all United States citizens regardless of race.

Week of August 5 - August 11, 2011

"It takes a whole village to raise a child." - African saying

Week of July 29 - August 4, 2011

 "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."- Antoine de Saint Expurey, The Little Prince

Antoine de Saint-Expurey was a French writer and pilot during World War II. 

Week of July 22 - July 28, 2011

"...The only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." - President Franklin D. Roosevelt

President Franklin D. Roosevelt served as the United States president during the Great Depression and World War II.  Among other things, President Roosevelt is famous for his New Deal of social programs to help struggling Americans during the Great Depression.