Day 1 -- how the Missionairies of Charity (M/C) began

If there had been a Twitter from M/C Day 1 (October 1950), it might read like this --

Day 1: One donor. Two souls.

After twenty years as a teacher and principal at a Catholic girls high school in Calcutta -- neat, clean, professional middle-class -- Mother Teresa had a vision. A vision to serve the "poorest of the poor," in a world where human waste runs down streets to open sewers (think "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Angela's Ashes.")

With her vision -- she asked for, and received permission from, the Vatican to begin her religious order. And so --

Day 1: One donor. Two souls.

Two clients. Not 20, or 200, or 2,000. Just two.

Today -- 520 M/C offices in 100 countries. Following the break-through 1974 BBC series about the M/C by a self-admitted "dispirited war correspondent" in need of renewal.

The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. A balance of resources, belief, and faith.

How Mother Teresa operated worldwide

Per previous, once upon a time, someone whom I befriended volunteered for a year with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. I supported those efforts with many in-kind services (e.g., fund-raising, donations).

How was "Mom T" able to work in 100 countries, some of them Communist and anti-Catholic?

What I learned: she focused on hospice work. She did not make political statements, or criticized anyone, which would have led to confrontations.

Just focused on her hospice work for "the poorest of the poor."

IMHO, good advice. In this field, focus on caring. Politics and power are different issues.

WaPo: 2009 Health Care Reform -- good luck

A cautionary note ..

Because Congress has passed bill after bill on Obama's wish list and because Democrats hold overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate, some may think there can be no repetition of the fiasco of 1993-94, when Bill and Hillary Clinton saw their effort at health-care reform die without a whimper.

Insiders know better. Last week, I went to see the four top officials of the National Coalition on Health Care, perhaps the broadest consortium in the field, including labor, religious, professional and medical groups and a smattering of businesses. It has long advocated the kind of comprehensive overhaul of health care that Obama aims to achieve.

These advocates applaud administration efforts to engage the players in the insurance, hospital and pharmaceutical industries in their talks -- and the willingness of those groups to "stay at the table."

But once there is specific legislation, they say, each of these groups will start bargaining hard to protect its own interests. And some of them -- local hospitals, for example -- have real clout with members of Congress ..

Obama will have to carry much of the burden of advocacy himself -- if outside events don't intrude, as they did on Bill Clinton. The president has shown his willingness to bargain, signaling, for example, that he would now consider taxing some employer-provided benefits, an approach he denounced when John McCain endorsed it during the campaign.

But it will take much more than that to win what promises to be an epic struggle.

What my family learned, working with the Cree of Canada

My family served the Cree community as accountants, pre-gaming. What we learned:

• Shared spirituality -- different, yet shared.
• Working together - fairly, forthrightly.
• A love of nature.
• Self-governance -- as a separate, unique national entity that works cooperatively with other such entities.
• Awareness of the global community and the need to work together.
• Respect and forthrightness with others.