I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking to any leader - or any person - in the world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar their talks.

I can be almost terminally grief-stricken because things are so dire, but at the same, there's a real lightheartednes s about just the recoverability of life, of how things change, how they're not the same, ever again.

My ancestors make up the skin of the world. That's who that is. That's what that is. That's us.

War contributes greatly to global warming, which shouldn't surprise us. All those bombs going off, all those rockets, all those planes and helicopters. All that fuel of various kinds being used. It pollutes the air and water of this very fragile and interconnected planet.

Even as I hold you, I am letting you go.

Surely the earth can be saved by all the people who insist on love.

The earth is wise. It has given itself into the keeping of all, and all are therefore accountable.