Editor’s note: There are probably many reasons this became the theme of a generation and perhaps asking my sixties friends I’d find a few more. But to me, this song always simply said to me “keep on moving.” And if you don’t know any other song by the Grateful Dead, it’s likely you’ve heard this if only because of its catchy tune. Enjoy.

Editor’s note: My friend, Glen Warner, suggested I’d like this book and I did. Since it was written in the 1920’s and the writer’s style is unique, it was a little hard to get into. But its parabolic teaching engaged me by the end. The moral of the story is typical serving something greater than our self but there’s more – the book suggests by doing so we become capable of greater achievements ourselves and that further, if we insist on confidence in our giving then the one to whom we’ve given becomes more likely to pass such “personality” on to others.

Editors note. This song by Bob Dylan was first released on The Band's first album Big Pink and has been covered by many since then. My love for it comes from listening to my son Kevin cover it at some of his gigs over the years. Enjoy a great roots rock song.

Editor’s note: I’m a little skittish about self-help books anymore, especially from an associate of “Dr. Oz” and so before reading “Wise Mind Living,” Dr. Olivo’s 200 page advice to moody people like me, I tried this little 19 pager to see what she’s like.  Everything here is known and has been written before elsewhere, as I’d suspected but it really was helpful to me to see how Olivo suggests I process my emotions, including my triggers and the after effects of the eight key areas she accounts for – six negative and two positive.  My twenty years of mindfulness practice keeps me noticing my emotions more but it will be pretty interesting to see if understanding the process helps me “name the emotion” before I let it go.  

Editors Note: My still-dear friend, John Zingg, and I played and sang this song (and many others) for spending cash in college and so it has always had a special place in my heart. But it became more when I learned recently that McCartney actually wrote it as a metaphor for the African-American struggle that was gaining ground at the time he wrote this in the late 1960s. The words now make the simple, lovely guitar even more beautiful.

Editor's Note: Drawing on the entrepreneurial life-lessons he gained from his Uncle Cleve, Who Owns the Icehouse? chronicles Clifton Taulbert’s journey from life in the Mississippi Delta at the height of legal segregation to being recognized by Time Magazine as “one of our nations most outstanding emerging entrepreneurs.” While Taulbert describes the life-changing influence of his Uncle Cleve, Gary Schoeniger, founder of Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative (ELI), captures the entrepreneurial life-lessons and the unlimited opportunities they can provide.

Editor’s Note: Given the racial tensions building in our cities between imperfect police forces and imperfect legal systems, I noticed this, one of my favorite old blues songs on my iPhone the other day. This early 2000’s version of an old Ray Charles tune says it all.  

Editor’s note: Dr. Deaton, a social economist from Princeton who is widely respected uses this readable book to separate health and income’s effects on global life quality. He is brave enough to go way back and way forward in sharing his thought and all of his present and past observations are well researched and documented. Late in his thesis he says (my favorite seven words in the book) that we should worry about “equality of opportunity, not equality of outcomes.” His overall findings, if summarized from my reading would be that we’ve had huge progress in spreading (health and income) life quality over the last 150 years but that we may not do as well going forward. Essentially he is optimistic about the past and somewhat pessimistic about our future and while he cites good reasons to be skeptical, I’m hoping his warnings are observed and considered but not believed or accepted.  

Editor’s Note: This is the book I would be able to write if I had 10 times the experience I have at this time. Every interest I’ve had, it seems, is covered by this famous reporting couple. The thorough nature of their approach in fact makes it informative and helpful to a neophyte like me but also a bit weighty if you are more casual in your interest. Kristoff and WuDunn take account of an amazing number of vignettes of successful and unsuccessful efforts to stem poverty and its root causes here in America and throughout the world. In the same book, they also study the science of both giving and receiving. Finally, they cover measuring impact. For me it was well worth the slog and even if others are overwhelmed by it, the book adds fame and practical knowledge to this emerging social change society we are growing together.

Editor’s note: I’m not Coldplay’s biggest fan but I like the guy’s voice a ton and enjoy their creative orchestration, particularly their use of strings. While hearing this, one of their most popular tunes I was struck by the lyrics I’d never quite listened to before. The recurring point of course is the old “riding high in April, shot down in May” of Sinatra reminiscence. But the real striker was the one phrase chosen below as my favorite lyric.