Page 50 - Tom Steyer Issue

make that connection, and it was something that gave me an enormous amount of positive reinforcement and pleasure. I feel as if I was making an emotional connec- tion to the people I was talking to and seeing. That’s really important to me, and I miss it.
Someone once asked me, “Do you believe in God?” And I said, “Yes, I do believe in God,” and by the way, except when it’s forbidden, I go to church every Sunday, and it’s very important to me. But the closest that I feel I’ve ever been to God is watching an eight-year-old kid outside San Diego, who’s on the free lunch, eat a fish taco on a sunny day that was provided by California Food for California Kids, our organization, knowing that otherwise he’d be hungry. For me, what is God? It is that positive connection with other people and shared humanity and, at some level, love for each other, taking care of each other, that is the most satisfying, meaning- ful part of life. And I think that’s a common thing. I think everybody has that feeling, and sometimes it’s suppressed because people are worried about other things and they can’t get there, but I think that’s some- thing I share with virtually everybody, that fellow feel- ing. And that’s the thing that brings real joy to me and to other people, too.
Cooper: Do you get to go to your ranch?
Steyer: No, I have not been down there. My partner Kat Taylor has been down there to see how things are going, to see it in terms of running it because it’s a business, and it’s something where we’re trying very hard to show that raising grass-finished cattle, chickens, and pigs is some- thing that is good for the soil, produces healthy food, and sequesters carbon on a net basis. We’re trying to show all those things. So, she’s been down there because she’s really the person who’s in charge of that operation. I haven’t been down there since we were shut down.
Cooper: What’s the first thing you’ll do when you can go out and be a little more social?
Cooper: During these times people are stressed and focused on what they think are priorities in their lives— money, health or whatever—but I think you’re right. I think the core of humans have that in them, but you see that day after day people forget. The more they focus on growing wealth, they seem to lose touch. I’ve experi- enced the same thing, especially because we do a lot of programs where we get people to volunteer, and when we get people to come out to an ABILITY House where we have volunteers with disabilities building homes for families with disabilities. People who are giving back who have never been asked, those are the moments you’re talking about, where you say— it’s heart warm- ing and amazing.
Steyer: One of the things I love to do is have a big get- together with my friends.
Cooper: Thanks for the invitation
Steyer: (laughs) Sure, you’re invited! I’ll give you an example. Our oldest son was supposed to be married on June 27th of this year. He’ll have a ceremony as soon as he and his fiancée can arrange that, but they won’t have what you think of as a party to celebrate it until Septem- ber of next year.
Cooper: Oh, wow.
Steyer: It’s really funny. I was talking to a friend of mine who’s a very successful businesswoman, and she was talking about what she’s done with her life. She’s not old, she’s what I would think of as middle-aged, very successful, and she’s done a couple different jobs, quite rich. She was telling me about what she thought was important in her life, and she was literally referring to something she’d done ten-plus years ago to help some disadvantaged kids. She was referring to this as an absolute critical event in her life, pleasure-giving, ful- fillment-giving, meaningful event in her life. I was thinking, “Good grief! You could do that every day!”
Steyer: So, hopefully, they’ll get to do that and it’ll be fun. But the chance to sit down and see people is some- thing I really miss. I always love having close friends and friends from when I was a little kid all the way through to today. I love catching up with them, seeing them and enjoying them. That’s probably on a personal level what I miss the most.
Cooper: It comes across that you’re a people person. I’ve got a lot of photos of you, and you can just see in your eyes your connection with other people. There are certain politicians who are doing things—they’re doing the kiss-the-baby for the photo. (laughs)
Cooper: (laughs)
Steyer: “And maybe you should do that again.”
Steyer: (laughs) It’s funny, Chet, because one of the things you have to be very careful of when you’re with people on a campaign is to make sure you’re not intrud- ing on their personal space, and that they feel the same way you feel, so that any interaction you have–particu- larly if you’re hugging each other–is something that they’re comfortable with. That is something I try to make sure I do because I never want to create that dis- comfort with somebody else.
Cooper: One of my best interviews was with Kirk Dou- glas. There was something about him. He broke the blacklist barrier with Spartacus. He wrote a book about his stroke. I went to his house and we talked for hours. He said one of the things he learned about the stroke is that he watched the people helping him and how much they gave, and he realized that he’d been pretty much a selfish person all his life. It was the stroke that brought a
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