Unfinished Business

Doing the right thing.
by Lee Kravitz

Facebook vs. Face to Face: Why School Reunions Will Endure

There's evidence that, particularly among younger alumni, Facebook is hurting attendance at high school and college reunions. After attending his 40th, the author explains why Facebook is a poor substitute for the perspective-enhancing experiences you get face to face and across a crowded room. Read More

One Young Man's Father's Day Epiphany

The thought of hearing about his son's first touchdown over the phone provokes a new dad to rethink his priorities. What would you do? Read More

Are You Happy, Daddy?

How would the daddy in your kids' life answer the same important question this Father's Day? Read More

How I Learned That My Father Loved Me

The author resisted his father's coaching, in baseball and in life. What changed? Read More

In Their Own Words: Five Stories of Healing and Forgiveness

How do you heal old wounds? It often begins with a sudden realization, or a bold first step. Five readers reveal the rewards of reaching out and making amends. Read More

Hard-wired for Compassion

As PASSAGES author Gail Sheehy writes in the new foreword to my book, the instinct to care for the vulnerable is "rooted deep in the mammalian brain." Read More

To Go or Not to Go: Is Your School Reunion Worth the Worry?

They are fraught with concerns over how we look, who we've married, what we have or haven't achieved over the years and hurts real and imagined. But, according to the author, there are at least two important reasons to attend your class reunions from high school and college. Read More

Kind Hearts and Kindred Spirits

His story is as American as they come -- and so is his rugged individualism and his love of our nation's wide open spaces. What makes him unique, though, is the legacy he's leaving future generations through his music and mentoring of young people. Meet Ernie Sites, the Singing Cowboy. And hear the song that's become the anthem for this blog.  Read More

A Place for Me to Visit Her

His beloved aunt's death reminds the author how certain places exert a primal pull: They keep drawing us back, to refresh our faith in both humanity and ourselves.  Read More

Take the 30-Day Unfinished Business Challenge

Tackling your unfinished emotional business -- even just one item of it -- can transform your life. The author offers the strategies that worked best for him. Read More

The Greatest Gift of All

By writing down your life story, you create a legacy for your children and grandchildren. As they embark on their own journeys of self-discovery, you and your story will help guide their way. Read More

A Book Club with a Mission

UNFINISHED BUSINESS, my book about closing circles and making amends, was just named the first-ever selection of a new global book club. Sean Penn's J/P HRO Haitian Relief Organization will be 1 World 1 Book's first featured charity.  Read More

The Music Man

The inspiring story of how a father created a legacy with his grandfather's fiddle and passed a baton to his son so that his son could fulfill his dreams. Read More

Isn't Life Curious?

Only one reader offered the correct answer to the author's "photo riddle." Is it possible that their paths once crossed? Read More

Where in the World Was Lee?

Is there a part of yourself that you've neglected over the years? Is there a passion you once had that could add a dimension now to your life?  The author invites you to take part in a contest that will test your knowledge of world geography and history -- and also your self. Read More

From Chennai to Chicago, Tough Times Taught Her to Be Kind

Meet Uma Girish, 46, the first reader nominated to become a member of the My Unfinished Business Hall of Fame. Her goal is to help seniors reconcile with friends and relatives and "make peace with their lives." Read More

Windows Into Our Psyche?

They've been called "psychic tableaux"and "frozen dreams." The author reflects on four family pictures his father took 50 years ago. Then he wonders: "Will today's digital family pictures yield as many psychological insights as the pre-digital slides and negatives our parents took?" Read More

"I feel like I just won the lottery."

She thought that a thousand dollars was the least she could offer to repay an old debt. Would her husband agree?  A real-life story from a reader who discovered the saving grace of kindness. Read More

Building a Legacy: A Man Named Teddy

All of us have a Teddy Kaplan in our family's history, a person who survived great odds and lived with quiet, awe-inspiring dignity. It is our obligation to future generations to tell their stories well.  Read More

Building a Legacy: A Man Named Chatza

The Russian novelist Turgenev once said that "Every man should write the story of his life." A corollary might be "Every man (and woman, of course) should write the story of his or her family." Read More

A Life Story in Film

At an important juncture in his life and career, filmmaker Richard Levine created a hauntingly lyrical video that helped him address a piece of his unfinished emotional business. There are many ways to tell a life story. Here is an extraordinary example of one: "Home" by Richard Levine. Read More

Putting Your Life Story to Work

A tribute to Dr. Robert N. Butler: He championed the elderly and showed how they use distant memories to make sense of their lives as they approach death. Among the questions the author had intended to ask him before he died: "Why do we need to wait until we're 80 to put our emotional and spiritual lives in order? Why can't we activate the process of ‘life review' at an earlier stage?" Read More

Lee Kravitz

Lee Kravitz is the author of the book Unfinished Business, as well as the former editor-in-chief of Parade.

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About Unfinished Business

My blog focuses on how we can tend to our unfinished business and keep it from accumulating. It explores how we can use our unfinished business to understand who we are and what we value -- and to deepen our connections to other human beings. From time to time I will report on relevant science and research. But, for the most part, Unfinished Business will feature the stories of people like you and me who are struggling to reinvent themselves and make the most of their lives in these uncertain times. 

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Books by Lee Kravitz

Image of Unfinished Business: One Man's Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Things
Unfinished Business: One Man's Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Things