“Can you please slow down?” is a common refrain on road trips. Often followed by “You don’t have to drive so fast.”
Increasingly over the last few years, long drives have become sources of tension within my family. The speed with which I drive is often hotly contested.
For context, while I am most definitely driving above the legal speed limit, I am typically within the social norm of “If you’re within 10 MPH, you’re ok.”…
Fun fact – one hundred years ago, Robert was the most popular boy’s name in the country. Today, my name doesn’t make the top one hundred list.
Fifteen years ago, my first book, Actions Speak Loudest: Keeping Our Promise for a Better World was published. This first chapter in this collection of essays was written by former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away last week at the age of one hundred – born the same year Robert was the most popular name in the country.…
The new year is here. With it might come some level of anxiety or excitement as we anticipate the 365 days before us.
If you are of my generation, the word anticipation might evoke this classic ketchup commercial.
The commercial draws its inspiration from this Carly Simon song.
Politically or personally you may have reason to anticipate the future with concern or fear. The world can be a scary place and the future is of course largely unknown.…
As the final days of 2024 wind down, it is natural to both look back to see what we have to show for them and to look forward to see what we hope to do with them in the year ahead.
We live in moments or minutes or hours. We plan our life in weeks or months. We measure our lives in years. But I believe it is the day that is the simplest and most easily grasped unit of time to consider.…
It happens every year around this time. Some years it takes longer than others.
At some point amid all the chaos of shopping and trying to close up the proverbial shop before the holiday break, you feel it.
It could be inspired by a song, a card, or a quiet moment with family or a night out with friends.
In my case, I was shopping at an outdoor mall.…
“I know what it feels like to be a parent now,” my oldest daughter told me after watching her youngest sister deliver a chorus solo during the school’s winter concert. “I was so nervous,” she added.
Anxiety, nervousness and fear are three of the most nerve-wracking aspects of parenting – if not life in general. If we’re lucky they exist in a low hum in the background as we move about our days.…
I developed a new-found appreciation for Yacht Rock, after watching this documentary that talked about the musicianship of groups like Steely Dan, Toto and The Doobie Brothers. I had no idea of their jazz underpinnings or their profound influence on so many other groups and music.
Similarly, while I had heard of the storytelling organization The Moth and listened to one or two of their stories over the years, I now have a new-found interest in their work after reading the book The Moth Presents A Point in Beauty True Stories of Holding on and Letting Go.…
On Thanksgiving, many shared thoughts of people, experiences or things that they are grateful for this year. It is perhaps the best thing about the holiday. The ability to pause from our busy lives, reflect on what we’re thankful for and reach out to share our gratitude with others. A practice by the way, that is best exercised every day, especially during difficult times. As Michael J.…
“Not in my lifetime,” lamented the older woman at the train station. She was looking out at the adjacent Hudson River and referring to the lack of long-promised development on our waterfront. The lack of progress over generations presumably due to some combination of owners who need to remediate it from intense pollution and contamination caused by factories long closed and a village who is happy to have it transformed into a public park but resistant to commercial or residential development. …
This was a particularly rocky week. Numerous curveballs and conflicts threw me off my game. One particularly challenging morning saw four major stressful situations arise before I had my first sip of coffee. Yet on that day and on every other, I managed to compartmentalize those conflicts, accept life’s inherent unfairness and unpredictability and have a semblance of a good day anyway.
I was in part inspired by a Haitian proverb that I had just read in this book by Oliver Burkeman. …
Water can freeze and become ice. Ice can melt and become water again. Water can be heated and evaporates into gas. Matter constantly changing states of being.
Our emotions can similarly transform into different states, often affected similarly by turning up or down the temperature or introducing other factors that bring tension and transformation.
At the same time, much of transformation and metamorphosis comes down to what is happening internally, a level most often invisible to the eye.…
During the fourth game of the World Series between two long time rivals – the Yankees and Dodgers, there was a long pause.
In unison, the players from both teams, umpires, crew and the almost 50,000 fans stood. Each held a placard with a name on it – representing the person they were standing up for who had – or is – battling cancer. It was part of a national effort from the organization Stand Up to Cancer.…
Last week I stumbled upon the new concept album by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis. It is based on the 1979 cult-classic movie Warriors. Those familiar with the movie may recall the iconic line, “Warriors come out to play.”
The plot involves a respected gang leader who calls all rival gangs to a meeting in the Bronx in an attempt to achieve a peace treaty among them all.…
“Do you want to see something cute?”
“Not now.”
“Maybe later.”
“I have too much to do.”
This was the after dinner exchange in my house last Wednesday.
This was the cute in question.
If you clicked the link you noticed that it took all of a few seconds to presumably put a smile on your face. If you were a member of my family the smile might have been a little larger due to the personal connection to the “cuteness.”…
Children filed in. Quietly taking seats on padded cushions on the auditorium floor. Hundreds of tiny faces looking up at me – a children’s book author who once sat where they are now.
Returning to the elementary school which was the inspiration for my latest book, I told them stories about my time there, being the new kid, and learning to play kickball. I read my book to them and answered their questions – ranging from cute to astute.…
Emerson once wrote that ‘In every work of genius, we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.”
With this definition in mind, songwriters are a particular type of genius creators. With a melody and relatively few words (usually between 100-300), the best have a rare ability to sing to us as if the words were moving from our own minds to mouths.…
I don’t know where it comes from and it can be overwhelming.
I wear many, many hats. With each one of them comes a certain amount of joy and responsibility. At any given time, I feel as if I am likely failing in one capacity or another, sometimes more.
This potential failure is a threat to my ego. My sense of self as someone who is high achieving or “can do it all.”…
For homework, I told my students to go for a walk. The class was Creative Team Dynamics at the Parsons School of Design. I asked them to observe the interactions between people. Some may have been acting in concert towards a common goal, others in obvious conflict, while others still somewhere in between.
In class this week, they shared what they noticed. Many recalled sweet images of children with their parents or couples on a walk.…
Three months ago, as part of the launch of my children’s book, America’s Dreaming, I had a goal of giving away at least one hundred Welcome Wagons filled with books about belonging and kindness to communities of need in the country.
I also had no idea how to make that happen.
Flash forward, we’ve raised enough money for the first hundred wagons and have established partnerships with wonderful organizations like Radio Flyer, Penguin Young Readers, Welcoming America, Raising a Reader, Booked Authors and Brilliant Detroit.…
Here is a sampling of things I’ve heard from students of all ages this week:
“We had to read a book and if we felt like putting it down because it was boring, we were told that it was a sign that the class wasn’t for us.”
“I was told that my portfolio wasn’t good enough so I shouldn’t apply to art school.”
“We were told that every student was going to fail this test.”…
The vacation itself was a splurge, partially offset by frequent flier miles. Three Hawaiian islands over the course of two weeks. While there we splurged on a few excursions; a luau, a snorkeling trip and swimming with dolphins. The latter of which has been on my bucket list since I was a little boy.
To splurge is to knowingly indulge yourself – often with a cost that you know or feel is extravagant.…
You may have heard a lot lately about the concept of zero-sum thinking. At a very basic level, it is the idea that in order for one person (or group of people) to benefit someone else has to lose. It is a psychological concept that we all have probably felt at one time or another in our lives.
But when it comes to opportunity is it true?…
I’ve been taking it slow since returning from vacation last week. The pace determined not by jet lag or a desire to stay on island time but inspired instead by two wonderful experiences on my flight.
The first was watching the Japanese film, Perfect Days. On the surface, this would seem an odd choice. The pace of the movie in the beginning is almost painfully slow as it follows the daily habits of a Japanese man whose job is to clean public restrooms.…
My wife recently signed me up for a trial Tai Chi Qigong class. I was admittedly skeptical going in, but the class itself was a wonderful exercise in being present in your own mind and body. In the process, getting a better appreciation of your own sources of energy.
As part of the trial class, I also received a thirty minute consultation session after. I sat criss-cross applesauce across from the instructor, who was half my age.…
As you’re reading this, I am on vacation. Perhaps you are as well. Like many, the few weeks before a vacation are spent rushing around trying to clear the desk, empty the email box and remove as much work – not just off our plate but out of our mind. As part of that process, it means that I write two of these weekly posts in advance.…
