A week ago, June Callwood died; an author, founder of an AIDS hospice, social justice activist, and much more. I think she deserves some recognition here.

Her last CBC interview: www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php

www.cbc.ca/canada/story...callwood.html

During this interview George Strombolopolis, the host of the CBC show The Hour, asked her if she had any thoughts this close to death on "what's next":

June: No, there's nothing next. That's all right. What you get is a life. A baby's a miracle. You open a baby's fist and they'll close their fist on your hand and hold on. And what they've got is a life. And, ah, to live it as best they can, that's what you get. And you don't need anything else, you know, when you've got that.

George: You don't believe in a God, I guess, if there's nothing after death -

June: I believe in kindness. I think it's very communicable. Just as meanness is, too. But even more so, more powerful. Strangers hold doors for one another in the downtown there, always... um, almost always. Sometimes they say thank you, sometimes they don't, but there's something in us that says, ah, if I hold this door, it helps this other person. And the person who comes through the door is a little bit changed, a tiny, tiny little shift in the plates: that someone held a door for me instead of it shutting. Great consideration for one another: that's what's gonna save the world.