Lee Kravitz's Blog, page 4

The Other Side of Talk Radio

Whether you're being interviewed in a studio, calling in a question or comment, or listening in the car, there's something about the medium of talk radio -- its facelessness, perhaps, or the "um"s and "ya-know"s that bridge thoughts and punctuate the silences  -- that encourages confession and fosters intimacy. I've probably done thirty-five radio interviews in the last few months -- some lasting 10 minutes or less, others as long as an hour -- and I keep marveling at the back-and-forth betwe...

A Life Story in Film

“ "I am walking, I am walking, I am walking through my childhood home.” I was listening to the opening lines of “Home,” one of the most moving autobiographical films I had seen in years.  The man who created it, Richard Levine, had just finished reading the book I had written about my unfinished emotional and spiritual business, how dealing with it had transformed my life. Levine, who is 59, said that his film dealt with some of the same issues.  Before you read on, take a look at Levine’s fi...

Putting Your Life Story to Work

A tribute to Dr. Robert N. Butler. The date was July 18, 2010. I had just finished my book tour for UNFINISHED BUSINESS, my chronicle of a midlife year spent closing circles and making amends. Finally, I could turn to the items of unfinished business I had put off while being on book tour. The first and most important was to arrange a meeting with Dr. Robert N. Butler, the psychiatrist who had founded the National Institute of Aging and the International Longevity Center and done more than an...

Happy Belated Birthday

Special occasions can be a good time to reconnect with old friends. AceyLacey wrote: "I had lost contact with a friend from back in high school. We had always wished each other "Happy Birthday" on our birthdays. This year, as it was my 50th birthday, I picked up the phone to wish my friend a happy birthday as well. I was pleasantly surprised to hear her voice on the other end of the phone. We cried some, and have not stopped talking since."  Are there any special traditions or rituals that yo...

Thank you for being a mother to me

A reader shares how badly he treated his stepmother when he was a teen -- and how he later made amends for his hurtful behavior. Mugger wrote: "My mother died when I was 6; my dad remarried when I was 13 or 14. I was the typical stepson: a brat and a punk, self-centered and just a jerk. I showed my stepmother no respect. "I joined the Navy at 17 to get away from home. As I grew older, and maybe because of the Navy, I realized that my stepmother was a wonderful woman. The thing I am most thank...

Confirm Friend Request?

From numerous emails I've been getting lately, it's clear that social networks are playing a key role in helping people of all ages address their unfinished business. Here, two readers share how their unfinished business was made whole with the help of Facebook. Rezza31 wrote: "About 13 years ago, my sister and I had a bad falling out. We didn't have any contact with one another as she said she never wanted to hear from me again. During that time, our mom passed away, and I was never called. ...

You know we've got to find a way, to bring some lovin' here today

It is particularly difficult to keep the peace in a family when drugs are involved. This is a sad story but, in the end, the writer was happy that she made the choice to reach out to her troubled brother when she finally did. Twanna wrote: "I came from a home with an older brother who was on drugs for most his life. It cost my parents their marriage. I left home for my safety. I didn't look back. I had a failed marriage myself, with one child. I needed to keep my child safe from my brother, a...

I knew immediately that I had finally done the right thing. . .

A sincere apology can heal a rift in a relationship and transform the person who made the apology, as this post from Tooterflooter reveals: "Several years ago when I celebrated a significant anniversary, I neglected to include someone who definitely should have been invited. She had been so much a part of my life, but I just left her out. Too late I realized how much I had hurt her, and I felt bad, but didn't know how to make amends.  It turned out that one day I was conducting a workshop and...

Why You Should Think Twice Before You Judge a Book by its Cover

I never even attempted to talk with him. But in the three years we were neighbors In Cleveland Heights, Ohio, I felt oddly attuned to the strange man who would pass by my house as he hurried to and from work, looking anxious and forlorn, as if he carried the burdens of the world on his slumping shoulders. I was in my early 20s, cobbling together a living as a freelance writer and bartender at the time, and I remember thinking that he was precisely the type of person I didn't want to become, p...

We had been searching for each other for decades. . .

The yearning to know one's family -- and to keep the connection between blood relatives alive -- runs deep, as this story of one family's reunion across three generations and continents makes clear. by Sara Brzowsky "My grandmother and her brother, Jacobo, were orphaned by a pogrom in the Ukraine and ended up in different parts of the world; she in the U.S., he in Buenos Aires. They corresponded throughout their lives; once, when we were very young, we all visited them in Buenos Aires, anothe...