Oprah Winfrey

Hi, Gord.

I totally agree.

You will go to great lengths to prove that you matter.

That you do matter.

When I think about political extremes, I think about road rage, I think about shootings, I think about online attacks.

These are people who are desperately saying, oh, I don't matter, I'll show you I matter.

They'll even act out against themselves.

There was a study that I write about

of suicidal men.

And the two words they used to describe their pain was useless and worthless.

Yes.

So when we feel like we don't matter, we can turn against ourselves or we can turn against each other.

Well, when you feel like you don't matter, you feel like you're going through this world alone.

Alone, yes.

And we know from an evolutionary perspective that we are wired to matter.

Right.

We are wired to be important to the band, to the group, and to not matter to the group means to be pushed out.

And to our earliest ancestors, that meant death.

And we are wired, and as Gord puts it, it is life or death.

It is life or death.