POVERTY: Sometimes the easiest way to understand the macro is to reduce it to the micro. Say the whole world were a single family (it really is, by the way). What parent could tolerate a situation where one of his six children is hundreds of times poorer than another one -- where one has wealth and food and education and opportunity while another one has none of the above? How does God tolerate it in his family? How long and how patiently will He wait for the one son to help the other (first to notice and then to act)? -- Barbara Kingsolver