Dr. David Alter

If that makes sense.

Thank you.

First of all, thank each of you.

Your questions were great.

The opportunity is so welcoming.

It feels very natural.

I would say an hour or two from now, I'll end up saying to myself, boy, I haven't seen those guys in years, even though I'm meeting some of you today.

Because there's a deep connection, I think, that we forged together.

something that I think is worth meditating on at the social cultural level, because I think these days that's a lot of what's hurting around the world.

There's a book I just finished reading.

It comes from my faith tradition, a Jewish background, called The Triumph of Life.

And if you reduce it down,

The author is saying, you know, each day we engage in many, many, many actions.

Our responsibility in the world is to act to repair the world, not to repair the self, but to make a positive difference in the world, to make the world better than how we found it.

And so he says in each decision that we make.

We can either support life or we can support death.

And by death, he means dismissing, rejecting, abusing, criticizing.

Those are degrading choices.

Or we can make choices that lift up, that are choices we make in terms of living, of life.

taking a moment, looking a person in the eye and saying thank you is a simple step, a meditation, meditative step in the sense that you start to recognize how many dozens of opportunities a day can you make those simple, simple steps that build toward a better place.