Inspiration

When the man came home, his wife was crying.

"Your mother insulted me," she sobbed.

"My mother? How could she do that? She's on vacation on the other side of the world!" the man said.

"I know. But this morning a letter addressed to you arrived. I opened it because I was curious."

"And?"

"At the end of the letter she wrote:

PS. Dear Diane, when you have finished reading this letter, don't forget to give it to my son."

“It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars.”

- Garrison Keillor

He couldn't have been over six years old.  Dirty face, barefooted, torn T-shirt, matted hair.  He wasn't too different from the other hundred thousand or so street orphans that roam Rio de Janeiro.

I was walking to get a cup of coffee at a nearby cafe when he came up behind me.  With my thoughts somewhere between the task I had just finished and the class I was about to teach, I scarcely felt the tap, tap, tap on my hand.  I stopped and turned.  Seeing no one, I continued on my way.  I'd only taken a few steps, however, when I felt another insistent tap, tap, tap.  This time I stopped and looked downward.  There he stood.  His eyes were whiter because of his grubby cheeks and coal-black hair.

"Pao, senhor?" (Bread, sir?)

Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.

- Unknown