Being poor doesn't mean being ordinary.

Africans didn't want saving, thank you very much, least of all not by me.

I have seen that traditional approaches to charity and aid don't solve problems of poverty. In fact, too often they create dependence.

Monsters will always exist. There's one inside each of us. But an angel lives there, too. There is no more important agenda than figuring out how to slay one and nurture the other.

Each of us can work to change a small portion of events. And it's in the total of all those acts that the history of this generation will be written.

The older I get, the more determined I feel to do whatever I can to help release that human potential somehow. Not in a fluffy way nor in a hardcore way. But in that middle ground, that marriage of love and power. I'm not afraid of either.

I wrote 'The Blue Sweater' to inspire more people to become engaged in working to solve the problems of global poverty.