You know, none of us know how long we have. We lose friends. We lose family. It happens in slow, gradual ways, and it can happen suddenly and in horrific ways. And I always come back to the same place: The things that really matter in your life are within 15 feet of you.

Those are the things you should lean into. Those are the things that Charlie leaned into.

He loved getting out there on the road and going to college campuses. He loved debating with people. He loved coming on our show and doing his show. He loved doing the Turning Point events, which are so special and so influential and so important. But he loved his family more than anything. He loved God.

And that is all we should do right now. Lower your flag to half-mast. Hug your children. Hug your spouse. Go to church, or synagogue, or mosque this weekend and say prayer for everyone who is suffering because of Charlie’s death, especially his family.

And then we must move forward with priorities in place, with love front and center in our lives, and not too much time away from those who matter to us, right? Have the family dinner. Move things around to make it happen. Don’t prioritize only your work. Make sure that valve gets some liquid in it. Fill up all of these valves and then move forward.

You can’t live in fear. Charlie wouldn’t have wanted that. He certainly didn’t do that. You can’t allow yourself to be consumed by anger. As Fr. Mike Schmitz said, anger is appropriate and we will feel it. It is righteous anger, but you can’t stay mired in it for too long or you cannot function.

I’ve said to my daughter, who is a very empathetic teenage girl, that you can’t take on every upset as your own. Don’t take on every tragedy that you see in the news or around you as if it is personal because it will break your heart.

Our hearts are broken right now. And for many of us, this loss does feel personal. So, we need a time to grieve, we need a time to feel really angry, and then we need to move through those emotions and do something about it.

That ‘something’ is not violence. But the perpetrator should be held to account to the fullest extent possible under the law, and we must take an honest look at what motivated him (assuming it was a ‘him’). Was it just some nut case? If it was a nut case, we are not going to skip by yet another tragedy without institutionalization. I pledge to go to the White House myself and talk directly to the president about it. I promise you that is what I will do.

In any event, we need to catch the person, and we need to find the motivation. We need to punish the person, and we need to punish the people who created the motivation and the circumstances that led this person to think they could walk into an arena and take the innocent life of a good and decent man. I have faith in the law enforcement to find out.

God bless all of you. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for making this show possible. Thank you for loving us and making me feel loved and valued in this job that I do. I know Charlie felt that gratitude toward his audience, too, for giving him an extraordinary life.

My guest Vivek Ramamswamy was right. What Charlie did in 31 years so far surpasses what most people accomplish in a full and lengthy lifetime, something about which his family can be very proud. I’m sure his mother can be very proud, and, when his kids are old enough, they will get to know their father – as Emily Jashinsky pointed out – through videos and through the rest of us who will make sure that he goes on living. That is how all of our loved ones go on living, through our memories and when we share them all.

My love to all of you, and all my gratitude as well.