Mattress Mack on Work, Purpose, and the Power of Community

Mack, you just said that you're really young at age 75. Can you describe how important continuing to work and be part of a community is in terms of continuing to feel young as we age? Well, I think being part of community is really important whether it's work or not or maybe it's service work. Maybe you work at your church 40, 50 hours a week.

Maybe you work in the community 40 hours, 50 hours a week. You may not be being paid for it, but you're involved with a community. Community brings life to people.

You know, I see these kids all the time come out here. They're lost. They've never had a job.
They've been in jail. They've been in trouble. And all of a sudden, they become part of this community.

And six months later, they're feeling better about themselves. A year from then, they bought a car. They've got an apartment.

They've got some furniture. And they've got friends here. And it's about that community.
So I think there's unity in community, whether it's a work community or a faith community or a volunteer community. You got to be part of community because community brings strength and assets and encouragement. And being a community of one, that's the loneliest number.