00:00You know, when it comes to philanthropy, which is something that my family and I have been doing
00:09basically our whole lives, I grew up in the country in a very small town, and we didn't
00:16call it philanthropy back there. We called it being a good neighbor. When my dad made $14,000
00:26a year and raised four kids, and we were one of the wealthier families, we thought we were
00:34good. And when the neighbors, you know, a mile down the road with seven or eight kids
00:43and they didn't have food for Thanksgiving or Christmas or gifts, we made it for them
00:51and put together gifts, and I don't know how, and then we wrapped them and then we took
00:59the car and we turned off the engine about a quarter of a mile from their house and drifted
01:05the car up and then we snuck out of the car and put everything on their doorstep. That
01:12wasn't called philanthropy. It was called love. And so I say to you, what is love? Because
01:26I think we're at a time in the world where that is really the question. What is love? And
01:34I think it begins truly with forgiveness. Because for whatever your beliefs may be, whatever you
01:43call the God experience in your life and in your world, the higher power, the love of nature,
01:50the spiritual inclination, that is love. And that energetic feeling is that of self-forgiveness
02:01first. Because we must love ourselves. We must love ourselves to love another. And to love
02:08ourselves wholly and fully, we must forgive ourselves. We must forgive ourselves for even
02:14the unforgivable things that we have done. And 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. And
02:28we must earn our own self-forgiveness by facing ourselves truly and genuinely. And then to forgive
02:36another, we must stand with them while they face their own shame. And then we must embrace them and
02:43allow them to love their failed humanity as we love our own failed humanity. There have been times in
02:50my life of tremendous trauma. And I begin to believe that the purpose of life itself is to understand
02:59our trauma, survive it, and teach others to do the same. This 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 going to find the cure for
03:20AIDS, I will get the money, I will do this thing. I was young. I was young and I really thought,
03:32that Elizabeth Taylor, she got this thing going and look at me, I'm going to wrap it up.
03:37I was so young and I totally fucked up my acting career and messed up what people thought about
03:47me and became this really eccentric, crazy woman who went around the world begging for money and crying
03:55and failing and messing up and hoping and studying in laboratories with scientists and going in
04:02and orphanages with babies and children who had AIDS who were dying and mothers who were going to die
04:09before their children. And I saw the world. And I really learned what philanthropy meant.
04:18And it meant forgiving myself and forgiving others because there were a lot of people to forgive.
04:23While I did that 30-year journey, there were a lot of people who really needed a lot of
04:31fucking forgiveness. And let me tell you, it was really hard to forgive a lot of those motherfuckers.
04:41I've been on my knees a lot. And I will tell you that if you cannot forgive, you cannot serve.
04:57You must learn to forgive. And you must learn to give. And even if you push someone to the ground,
05:04you better learn how to get them back up again. And if even someone pushed you to the ground,
05:09you better reach out and put up your hand and you better let that very same motherfucker pick you up.
05:17Because that is the way the world works. And if you think you are here to do anything else on this
05:23planet, you have not yet learned the meaning of love, the meaning of giving, and the meaning of
05:28philanthropy. And that is why I am your opening speaker.
05:32I will tell you for sure that not everybody has liked me, not everybody has loved me, and not everyone
05:44has forgiven me. But I stand here not in my shame. I stand here in my love. And I love you. And I
05:55thank you. And I am on my knees to ask you to love me back, to love the person next to you. And so I would
06:05like you to turn to the person next to you. And I would like you to look at them. And even if you never
06:13met them, I would like you to forgive them. And accept them. And let them know it. Because that is your
06:25courageous act today. That is your act of philanthropy. Thank you. Goodbye.
Comments