I did not vote for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. But because of his candidacy, I got in my car early in 2009, and began what would be a 10,000 mile circumnavigation of the lower 48.

I did this because, by the time Americans got to the polls in November 2008, no matter who we voted for, everyone was using the word change.

So, because of McCain and Obama, because of the clear American desire for change, I got in my car the day after Obama’s inauguration and set out to ask everyday people what they meant by that word: change.

My goal was 100 voices in 100 days – voices from as many different perspectives as possible. Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Independent – ranging across age, income, work, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation. With every person, I asked what they meant by the word change. I asked, too, what they most wanted to remain the same. And I asked them how they would recognize positive change when they saw it.

In the end, there was no way I could cover the vast diversity of this country’s people, but I was able to get the 100 voices from 100 different ways of seeing and knowing. They became the book, 100 Voices – Americans Talk about Change.

The book also holds road notes on what I learned – how I was changed along the way. The book opens and closes with the list of my essential lessons from listening to citizens of our country.

One hundred days, one hundred voices. This is what I learned about change in America:

We are always free to focus on our differences.

We are free to fear one another.

We are free to be at war.

We are free to oppress and to resist oppression.

We are also free to ground public action in the strength and endurance of our vast similarities.

We are free to love.

Being alive demands courage, whatever our choices.

In life, we may never avoid change and we may never avoid connection. In this we are not free. We are, however, free in our responses given these realities.

….

That was 2009. This is 2018. And just last week, John McCain died at 81.

I want to share his open letter – released today by has family. I know there were many votes, opinions, legislative agendas that McCain supported with which I disagreed. But, particularly in recent years, it is clear to me that I not only agree with, but am inspired and comforted by this man’s essential understanding of what the American citizenry most fundamentally values – what I heard from everyday people on my drive in 2009.

Here is how John McCain said goodbye to Americans:

My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for sixty years, and especially my fellow Arizonans,

Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life that service in uniform and in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.

I have often observed that I am the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. I have loved my life, all of it. I have had experiences, adventures and friendships enough for ten satisfying lives, and I am so thankful. Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anyone else’s.

I owe that satisfaction to the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to America’s causes – liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people – brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.

“Fellow Americans” – that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history. We have acquired great wealth and power in the process.

We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.

We are three-hundred-and-twenty-five million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.

Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with the heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening.

I feel it powerfully still.

Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.

Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you, and God bless America.

Rest well, Senator McCain.