00:00You know, when it comes to philanthropy, which is something that my family and I have been
00:09doing basically our whole lives, I grew up in the country in a very small town.
00:16And we didn't call it philanthropy back there.
00:19We called it being a good neighbor.
00:24When my dad made $14,000 a year and raised four kids and we were one of the wealthier
00:31families, we thought we were good.
00:37And when the neighbors, you know, a mile down the road with seven or eight kids and they
00:45didn't have food for Thanksgiving or Christmas or gifts, we made it for them and put together
00:53gifts and I don't know how, and then we wrapped them and then we took the car and we turned
01:00off the engine about a quarter of a mile from their house and drifted the car up and then
01:07we snuck out of the car and put everything on their doorstep.
01:12That wasn't called philanthropy.
01:16It was called love.
01:19And so I say to you, what is love?
01:26Because I think we're at a time in the world where that is really the question.
01:32What is love?
01:34And I think it begins truly with forgiveness.
01:39Because for whatever your beliefs may be, whatever you call the God experience in your
01:46life and in your world, the higher power, the love of nature, the spiritual inclination,
01:53that is love.
01:56And that energetic feeling is that of self-forgiveness first.
02:02Because we must love ourselves.
02:05We must love ourselves to love another.
02:08And to love ourselves wholly and fully, we must forgive ourselves.
02:12We must forgive ourselves for even the unforgivable things that we have done.
02:17And by doing that, we must set down our shame.
02:21And we must understand that all of us have been shameful and we have all been shamed.
02:28And we must earn our own self-forgiveness by facing ourselves truly and genuinely.
02:35And then to forgive another, we must stand with them while they face their own shame.
02:41And then we must embrace them and allow them to love their failed humanity as we love our
02:46own failed humanity.
02:50There have been times in my life of tremendous trauma.
02:54And I begin to believe that the purpose of life itself is to understand our trauma, survive
03:01it, and teach others to do the same.
03:05This for me is really what philanthropy is.
03:11In my many years of being a field worker for HIV-AIDS, in the beginning I thought, I am
03:18going to find the cure for AIDS.
03:20I will get the money.
03:21I will do this thing.
03:27I was young.
03:29I was young and I really thought, that Elizabeth Taylor, she got this thing going and look
03:34at me.
03:35I'm going to wrap it up.
03:40I was so young.
03:42And I totally fucked up my acting career and messed up what people thought about me and
03:48became this really eccentric, crazy woman who went around the world begging for money
03:54and crying and failing and messing up and hoping and studying in laboratories with scientists
04:01and going in orphanages with babies and children who had AIDS who were dying and mothers who
04:08were going to die before their children.
04:11I saw the world.
04:13And I really learned what philanthropy meant.
04:19And it meant forgiving myself and forgiving others because there were a lot of people
04:23to forgive.
04:25While I did that 30-year journey, there were a lot of people who really needed a lot of
04:31fucking forgiveness.
04:37And let me tell you, it was really hard to forgive a lot of those motherfuckers.
04:48I've been on my knees a lot.
04:52And I will tell you that if you cannot forgive, you cannot serve.
04:57You must learn to forgive.
05:00And you must learn to give.
05:02And even if you push someone to the ground, you better learn how to get them back up again.
05:07And if even someone pushed you to the ground, you better reach out and put up your hand
05:12and you better let that very same motherfucker pick you up.
05:17Because that is the way the world works.
05:20If you think you are here to do anything else on this planet, you have not yet learned
05:25the meaning of love, the meaning of giving, and the meaning of philanthropy.
05:30And that is why I am your opening speaker.
05:39I will tell you for sure that not everybody has liked me, not everybody has loved me,
05:44and not everyone has forgiven me.
05:46But I stand here not in my shame.
05:50I stand here in my love.
05:53And I love you.
05:55And I thank you.
05:56And I am on my knees to ask you to love me back, to love the person next to you.
06:05And so I would like you to turn to the person next to you.
06:08And I would like you to look at them.
06:12And even if you never met them, I would like you to forgive them.
06:18And accept them.
06:21And let them know it.
06:24Because that is your courageous act today.
06:27That is your act of philanthropy.
06:30Thank you.
06:31Goodbye.
06:32Thank you.
06:33Thank you.
06:34Thank you.
06:35Thank you.
06:36Thank you.
06:37Thank you.
06:38Thank you.
06:39Thank you.
06:40Thank you.
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