Changing Lanes Blog: Living Intentionally

Work Hard. Be Nice.

A passion for our kids.

This is part IV in a series about remarkable lane changers who are making a difference in one of society’s most intractable problems—educating our kids. In earlier pieces on Marco Petruzzi,  Allan Rudnick, and Liza Bercovici, I wrote about successful professionals who at midlife discovered a…
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Leaving a Legacy

A Passion for Education Reform through the Arts

Changing lanes is tough enough when it’s your personal choice to explore a new road to a more meaningful life. Overcoming the sense of inertia and self-doubt to choose a way forward can be daunting work. But as we know, some people don’t have a…
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Find the Cure to Midlife Inertia—Part II

A Passion for Teaching

This is Part II in a series of blogs about reclaiming the passion in your life by making a particular lane change—getting engaged in education. I’m not talking about writing checks—admirable and needed, but it isn’t going to have the impact you’re looking for to…
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Find the Cure to Midlife Inertia

A Passion for Education Reform

I’ve got a license to steal and I couldn’t be more thrilled about it. As an author and blogger on the challenges and benefits of changing lanes at midlife, I have gained access to some of the most interesting and inspiring people who left high…
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Sundance Film Festival: Renewed Rebellion

Get Back to Where You Once Belonged

Susan and I returned to Sundance this year. We had taken a year off from our annual pilgrimage to Park City because the experience had become such a giant hassle that we could no longer justify the expense and time away from our families to…
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Dreams From My Father

Musings on the Yahrzeit of My Father’s Death

Today is my father’s yahrzeit.  Like many Yiddish words, this one conjures up much more than its dictionary definition. The strict definition is the anniversary of the death of a close family member, when we Jews customarily light a memorial candle and recite the mourners’…
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Aiming Wall Street Brains at Skid Row

Diamonds on the soles of her shoes.

OK, let’s get it out of our system. All the pent up rage against the finance industry for impoverishing the country, not to mention our own individual portfolios and retirement accounts.Retirement??? Ha! Remember when your biggest concern was what you would do with your leisure…
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Shoot me before I volunteer again!

My Six-Word Memoir.

Back in May, Susan posted a blog entitled My Six Word Memoir which was inspired by a funny piece she had heard on NPR. They were reporting on a project in which the editors of the storytelling magazine, SMITH, challenged its readers to write their life…
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Dump the Duty Demon

You changed my life!

Are you the “responsible one” in your family? The one everyone counts on to drop everything and do what’s needed for an ailing parent or child. The one who was expected to “be good”, study hard, work harder, and be there for everyone else?Chances are,…
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Architects of Change

Women take the lead

It had been several years since I attended the Women’s Conference (officially, The California Governor and First Lady’s Conference on Women), so I accepted an invitation to go as a guest of my friend, Annie Gilbar, Editor in Chief of the new Los Angeles Times Magazine, which…
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