As you simplify your life the laws of the universe will be simpler solitude will not be solitude poverty will not be poverty nor weakness weakness.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

Most organizations should be pro-active but philanthropists concerned with poverty should deliberately be reactive learning from the efforts of ordinary folks who tired of looking the other way as their communities fell apart.

Poverty must not be a bar to learning and learning must offer an escape from poverty.

Poverty and lack of knowledge must be challenged.

It is not difficult for me to have this faith for it is incontrovertible that where there is a plan there is intelligence - an orderly unfolding universe testifies to the truth of the most majestic statement ever uttered - 'In the beginning God.'

But it is equally incontrovertible that if our intelligence gathering process is seriously flawed we had better find out and find out fast if we are to avoid another Sept. 11.

The way that a handful of corporations in Los Angeles dictate how our stories are told creates a real poverty of imagination and it's a big problem.

One of my favorite things about 'Star Trek' wasn't just the overt banter but the humor in that show about the relationships between the main characters and their reactions to the situations they would face there was a lot of comedy in that show without ever breaking its reality.

You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything even poverty you can survive it.