First of all, you’ve got to stay positive. You’ve got to feel that even if things are bad now and all, you can make a difference. You can do that. And you’ve got to keep your eyes open for the times and the people with whom you can make that step. It’s very important that we don’t just discard people because they don’t meet certain standards or something. I know like I saw a picture of this woman who had an automobile accident. She was drinking. And she killed one of her children. It was right up here, you know. And it showed her being taken to jail. And I showed it to somebody, and I said, “Ohh.” Because I thought to myself, “What’s her life been? You know, what she… and now she can’t ever turn this around.” And the sadness was just greater. I thought, “Could she have been saved?”

And this one woman said, “But she was drinking.” And I thought, “Okay, that’s a pretty shallow I’m better than she is attitude.” I don’t think that does our country any good at all. I don’t think we do ourselves any good at all if we don’t have compassion for people who are maybe not loved as kids, who don’t get affection, who aren’t shown respect. I think it’s critical to try your best to keep doing that if you can.

And then the other thing I think is you just get up every morning and do it. That’s the best you can do. I do love working at the hospital because it keeps me grounded. I’m not here in this atmosphere with senior citizens and all of that, but I’m there where critical things are happening and you see things happen to people, and you learn from it every time. You come up with a different response for them every time depending on who they are. And as long as you remain curious about that kind of thing, I think you can keep on living. In other words, why? How do you keep going?

Learn from people that are smarter than me. (Laughs.) I remember the picture of the woman going to jail, yeah, and even that woman has something to teach us. Not even that woman. That woman has something to teach us.

Yes. Because first of all, what’s her background? Was she loved? Has she been cared for? We don’t know that. And I’m sure that people are very harmed as they grow up if they aren’t sincerely loved. And I don’t mean coddled, I mean respected and loved. And I’m supported all the time by my kids. My grandson just pleases the heck out of me. Ryan, who lives near here, and he works with cranes of all the things, and he’s a really intelligent kid. But he just went skydiving again after a big break, and he called me the other day and told me about it, and I want to say, “Don’t skydive!” (Laughs.) That scares me.

Don’t you know you could break your neck! And his youth and his intelligence and his energy keep me going. I really love that. He’s such a great guy.