Changing Lanes Blog: Being creative

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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Men in Tights: Real Men’s Stories about the Impact of Ballet on their Lives (Part 2)

Inspired by learning that Rahm, aka “Rahmbo” Emanuel was a ballet dancer, I wrote a piece about other macho men whom we know in our community as lawyers, doctors or Indian chiefs who have also been ballet dancers. These are lane changers who have incorporated…
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Men in Tights: Real Men’s Stories about the Impact of Ballet on their Lives (Part 1)

Have you ever walked into an appointment with your pediatrician, lawyer, or builder and been surprised by the lean, muscular body that moved so authoritatively yet gracefully to greet you? You’re dying to know how he manages to look so erect and loose-limbed at the…
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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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Passing The Torch Hand to Hand

Ballet Lessons for Real Life

Teaching has enormous appeal to Boomers as an antidote to careers that have come to feel soul-less. In Changing Lanes, I wrote about conducting an unscientific poll, asking male friends in their fifties and sixties what they might have been but for the pressure to…
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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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Taking Chances with your Community

Rumor has it.....

When I retired, as most people know, I headed up to the mountains of Northwest Colorado. I had grown up in a small town in rural Delaware and was anxious to return to my simpler roots after living my entire adult life in Washington D.C.,…
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