"I remember talking with a friend who has worked for many years at the catholic worker, a ministry to the poor in New York City. Daily she tries to respond to waves of human misery that are as ceaseless as surf in that community. Out of my deep not-knowing, I asked her how she could keep doing a work that never showed any results, work in which the problem keep getting worse instead of better. I will never forget her enigmatic answer: The thing you don't understand, Parker, is that just because something is impossible doesn't mean you shouldn't do it."
— Parker j. Palmer, American activist, born 1939