It might be helpful to know some of the factors that have influenced me in these years and what has propelled me to keep defining and re-defining Gentle Teaching. The roots of Gentle Teaching were shaped by coming from a large family, going to Brazil when I was a late adolescent and young adult, living with and among the poorest of the poor, working with prostitutes, drug addicts, and street children in a garbage dump, multiple memories of seeing brutal suffering and mountains of joy, singing beneath the nighttime skies with its stars and moon of the Northeastern desert,, sleeping beneath a full desert moon, amazement at the kindness of those who were hungry and starving, living for years in a house made of mud in a small village with neighbors who shared all that they had, and learning that to share did not mean giving a hungry person half of your loaf, but the entire loaf. I cannot say that I did anything very worthwhile, but many years after leaving Brazil it began to dawn on me that I had learned a lot about feeling safe and loved, the meaning of human interdependence, being alive in the moment, seeing the poorest of the poor sharing food and water to those who had less, and people in mud shacks giving love and shelter to those without a roof. I would dare to say that these children, men, and women taught me about gentleness and unconditional love. These are good memories that float over me like a cloud in a gentle breeze and inform everything that I do. We all have to conjure up our good moral memories, open our hearts to their grace, and let them move us toward the goodness of others. Buber’s list of virtues make sense to serve each person with love and kindness, especially the poorest of the poor.