Years ago after one of my every-five-year big birthday extravaganzas, my friend Ben gifted me with the title “Social Alchemist.” He’s right. I’ve spent my life as a mixologist of people as a boutique hotelier, restaurateur and bar owner, as the head of all the global hosts for Airbnb, and as the founder of MEA, a midlife wisdom school dedicated to life-changing conversations.

Let’s explore the word dependency for a moment. If you look up the word “dependency” in the dictionary, the first word that comes up is “subordinate.” The next descriptor is “under the jurisdiction of.”

Having recently celebrated my eighty-fifth birthday, I hold my intention to live in exploration. According to the dictionary, exploration means “to investigate another country.”

President Joe Biden has an odd language of aphorisms that’s both old-fashioned and unsettling. In his recent State of the Union address, he issued a challenge to new House Majority Republicans by saying, “As my football coach used to say: ‘Lots of luck in your senior year.’”

Okay, after yesterday’s post, I decided to lighten it up a little today. Why did The White Lotus have to kill Jennifer Coolidge off? She was the primary reason I watched that dishy soap opera.

Last week was a rough one for me. I was a human pin cushion for a few days in San Francisco while I got updates on my prostate cancer.

Young people are smarter, more creative, and more successful as entrepreneurs, right?

“I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are the experience of being alive.” -Joseph Campbell

In 2015, my Uncle (who raised me) died of ALS. One of the last things he told me was: “I have one piece of advice for you: don’t wait for anything. I waited my entire life to do things, and now I can’t.”

Last week, as I sat watching game shows and eating lousy Chinese takeout in an even lousier airport hotel in Denver, I knew my Modern Elder Academy compatriots were watching whales and enjoying a delicious dinner and delightful conversation without me. I thought about the irony of expertise.