I don’t know about you, but I can get buried in my work, addicted to the everyday busyness of my life. If I’m not careful, my attention becomes scattered, and I soon forget to pay attention to what (and who) is in front of me. I don’t believe I’m alone.

Juneteenth (June 19) is a holiday celebrating the 1865 emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States. Last night, sculptor Dana King’s 350 ancestral sculptures were unveiled as a new work of radically inclusive art in the heart of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park as conceived in concert with MEA alum Ben Davis called Monumental Reckoning.

You know I like to get geeky. Well, today is one of those days. MEA’s friend, Dr. Dilip Jeste, occasionally sends me some of his newest wisdom research. Here’s a hot-off-the-presses report on the relationship between the microbiome in our gut and loneliness and wisdom.

What a profound six minutes! Cindy Chang’s soulful, cathartic TED talk about how she creates public spaces to encourage deep dialogue is a revelation. It has had almost 6 million views and I’d never heard of it until recently. I love that she turned an empty New Orleans home into a chalkboard for a community contemplation about something we rarely talk about.

In 1980, Diana Ross released the song "I’m Coming Out." In 1980, I was 21 years old and just graduated from college. I moved from Illinois to San Francisco. That song became the LGBTQ anthem, about declaring who you were and being proud.

I remember the first time someone called me a "CEO whisperer.” I had no idea what they were talking about. I don’t tend to whisper. On the contrary, my advice to young CEOs can often feel like it’s coming straight from a bullhorn.

On a recent trip to Santa Fe, I met Nuns and Nones co-founder Adam Horowitz at our Ranch to talk about their social justice movement and MEA’s movement to Santa Fe, including potentially purchasing a Catholic retreat center next door to a cloister of contemplative nuns.

This post title sums up the gravitas and levity I’ve learned from Christian mystic Richard Rohr (and, of course, it tumbled out of his mouth).

I remember the moment everything plunges into darkness. For the first few minutes, I am disoriented. Slowly, the family emerges, one by one, around the kitchen table. Candles are lit, a game is found, a cosy blanket covers two of us, a bag of chips gets passed around.

My experience as the "modern elder" at Airbnb taught me that the generations have so much to learn from each other. Often, it’s the lived experience, EQ, and holistic thinking that can help a brilliant, young talent navigate the obstacle course of their early careers.