What Should I Do with the Rest of My Life_ - Bruce Frankel [1]
Many people suggested subjects and leads for the book, but I would be remiss not to single out Jim Emerman of Civic Ventures, Marcie Schwarz, Nancy Emerson Lombardo of Boston University School of Medicine, Cathy Pokines and Cecelia Taylor of the U.S. Small Business Administration, Mary Gergen, who publishes The Positive Aging Newsletter, Dick Goldberg of ComingofAge.org, and Margaret Newhouse of PassionandPurpose .com. In some cases, their suggestions led directly to the inspiring people in this book; in others, their interest and the queries they sent out on their email lists on my behalf buoyed me at an important juncture.
I am profoundly grateful to Jim Jerome for his unstinting friendship and his many valuable suggestions. Susan Dalsimer’s clear-sighted critique helped firm an early draft and relieve some anxiety. Thanks, too, to Pam Barr. I am grateful to Jean Brown for her speedy transcriptions when I was in a crunch. Abundant thanks to the editorial team at Avery/Penguin, including copy editor Allison Hargraves and copy chief Elizabeth Wagner, who caught my errors and fixed my prose as best they could, and to Miriam Rich, for her cheerful efficiency. It has been a delight to have Lucia Watson as my editor. She has been unfailingly gracious, upbeat, sensitive, and thoughtful. Her improvements to the manuscript were uniformly deft and clarifying.
I owe a special appreciation to Ryan Fischer-Harbage, my agent. Before he had any vested interest, he kept after me to pursue this book. From the time we met, in a workshop he gave on how to write a book proposal, he lived up to my impression of him as an ideal agent—excited about books, knowledgeable about the business, and poised to represent the author’s best interest. I feel lucky to have him in my corner.
I could not have written this book without the nurturing and encouragement of friends and loved ones. Special thanks to Marisa Galisteo, who gave me a compass and taught me to use it. I am eternally grateful to Liz Mintzer, the mother of my children, for her years of love, devotion, and support. Thanks to Linda Nettekoven and Larry Wallack for putting me up in Portland; to Kevin Roche for lunch in Nashville; to Rik Kirkland for sage advice; and to my brother Geoff and sister-in-law Maria, Doug Brandt, Kathryn Grody, and Lenore Hecht for cheering me on. I owe a huge debt to Leslie Shafer Koval, whose love lifted me when my writing got me down. She helped unknot my thoughts when they became tangled, pulled me out of my chair to dance when I sat too long, and shared her paradise with me.
Throughout, I have been fueled and humbled by the faith and confidence of my sons, Alex, Zach, and Isaiah. They can only be a fraction as proud of me as I am of each of them.
I owe supreme thanks to my parents, Anita and Bernie. Before his death in 1996, my father’s business life was a roller-coaster ride. Regardless of how low its dips, he remained an exemplar of cheerful resilience who never spoke a word of envy. He delighted in knowing people and the stories of their success, the more humble their origins the better. Part of what my mother taught me is found in the introduction, but there was much she breathed into me long before she reached her eighties. In one of the earliest sound bites of childhood, I hear my mother say convincingly, “You can become anything you wish.” Her resolve and her willingness to risk failure to achieve beauty when she finally began painting again was a happy beacon. But nothing was as good for me as the enjoyment she took from having me read chapters to her over the phone as I completed them.
Lastly, I offer my abiding admiration and