That's what fantasies are for, to help us imagine that things are better than they are.

But the fact is, most people are not going to be rich someday.

And yet, even so, there is a way to find happiness. That is to be curious about all of the interlocking events that add up to our lives. To notice connections. To be amused or perhaps frightened by the ways things work out. If the universe is indifferent, what a consolation that we are not.

Teaching prejudice to a child is itself a form of bullying. You've got to be taught to hate.

In the world of bad movies, 'Death to Smoochy' is a towering achievement.

It is reckless to make broad generalizations about any group of people.

Parents and schools should place great emphasis on the idea that it is all right to be different. Racism and all the other 'isms' grow from primitive tribalism, the instinctive hostility against those of another tribe, race, religion, nationality, class or whatever. You are a lucky child if your parents taught you to accept diversity.