We become human only in the company of other human beings. And this involves both opening our hearts and giving voice to our deepest convictions. ...When we shrink from the world, our souls shrink, too.

As Joanna Macy reminds us, "Information by itself can increase resistance [to engagement], deepening the sense of apathy and powerlessness." Stories about particular individuals and specific situations usually have the opposite effect. By giving unwieldy problems a human face, they also bring them down to a human-and thus manageable-scale.

We become human only in the company of other human beings. And this involves both opening our hearts and giving voice to our deepest convictions. ...When we shrink from the world, our souls shrink, too.

Possibility is the oxygen upon which hope thrives.

History...shows that even seemingly miraculous advances are in fact the result of many people taking small steps together over a long period of time.

None of us can predict when the causes we support will capture the public imagination, and our once-lonely quests become popular crusades.

Simply unleashing our imaginations can be empowering.