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One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was from a high school girlfriend. Like many hormone-filled teenagers (which is to say, teenagers), I was trying to figure out in my mind how she and I might eventually kiss. And, like many teenagers, I was having an awkward go of it. I had probably learned too many unrealistic lessons from watching fake romance in the movies. I was waiting for the dramatic scene where we would look at each other, the camera would zoom in and, as we inched closer, the magic would happen as the music swelled in the background. Needless to say, that’s not generally how it works in real life. Luckily for me, this young woman a) felt similarly about kissing, but...

About ten years ago, I discovered an album of the poet David Whyte called "Solace: The Art of the Beautiful Question." At the time I was leading Ask Big Questions, an initiative of Hillel International I had helped to found, and so the title intrigued me. Yet even as I've transitioned to new work and new stages of life, listening to this album has become an annual ritual, part of my practice of...

My father, may he rest in peace, used to say that there were two vistas, two views on the road, which made him feel like he was coming home. One was driving south on US-23 towards Ann Arbor, where he lived most of his adult life, as the road slopes down towards the Huron River yielding a view of downtown and the University of Michigan. The other was heading east on Highway 1 in Israel, coming up...

One of the leadership teacher Stephen Covey's most famous observations is that "relationships operate at the speed of trust." It's a line that has resonated with me for a long time. To me, trust is everything--at work, at home, in life. When I keep my promises, I feel like I'm upholding trust, depositing it in my account; when I fail to do so, I feel like I'm reducing the balance. When I have...

There's a neighborhood grocery store two blocks from my house. It's called Village Marketplace and, to many of us who reside in Skokie, it's one of the best things about living here. It's not a big chain, it's independently owned, and best of all, I can walk there and back in 5 minutes when we need a dozen eggs. Occasionally there are folks standing outside Village Market (locals drop the...

Like many of you reading this, I expect, the most powerful moment of this week's Democratic National Convention for me was the speech of Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the 109 remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Jon, and especially Rachel, have tragically become the most recognizable spokespeople for the hostage families. Seeing the tears in...

One of the inside jokes my wife Natalie and I have shared over 23 years of marriage is what we lovingly call the "Really, you needed research to tell you that?" phenomenon. You might be familiar with it yourself. In our experience, it most regularly occurs reading articles in The New York Times in which scientific research demonstrates something that it seems like someone with common sense could...

I was blessed to spend this week at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, during its 150th anniversary season. When I've had to explain what Chautauqua is to friends and loved ones, I've described it as some combination of Brigadoon, Mackinac Island, and adult summer camp for people who listen to National Public Radio. There are lectures and classes and cultural events galore, families...

In the past month I've had two really troubling conversations with young adults. One was with someone I know in their 20s. We were talking about the presidential campaign. And this very intelligent, caring person said, "Honestly, I just can't get excited about politics. The damage we have done to the planet is irreversible, and it feels like we only have a few years left no matter who's in...

I will admit that I wasn’t prepared for the emotional response I experienced upon reading President Biden’s letter announcing his decision to turn down renomination this week. I was really moved. Upon reflection, what touched me most was the rarity of witnessing the most politically powerful person in the world acknowledge his limitations and, after some reluctance, ultimately volunteer an act...

A couple of friends sent me David Brooks’s column in the New York Times last Friday. While the headline made it seem that the column was about “Trump’s enduring appeal,” the column itself might more accurately be summarized as a reflection on, as Brooks put it, “the deeper roots of our current dysfunction.” As one of my friends said, they thought I might resonate with Brooks’s analysis, and...

This isn’t a political space and I don’t intend to make it one here. But I also feel a need to talk about politics this week. Wish me luck. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been experiencing a deep feeling of unease. I have found it hard to focus. I’m more easily distracted than usual. My sleep hasn’t been as good. And it’s not about anything in my personal life–everyone is more or less okay,...

In the weeks before he left for camp, my youngest son, Toby, and I started watching the sitcom “Modern Family” together. It has been a delight to rediscover this show that I remember being stupendously funny the first time around and to share it with my kid now. (It’s also really interesting to see which parts of the show hold up 15 years later and which ones could use a rewrite.) Like any good...