Interesting People You Meet When You Write A Book

One of the things I love about having a blog is that I “meet” interesting people all the time. I’ve posted two articles in the past two weeks by Dr. Daniel Gottlieb, a psychologist who writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer. After I read his first article, I dropped him an email and we’ve had several conversations since then. Last week, he sent me a copy of his most recent book, Letters to Sam: A Grandfather’s Lessons on Love, Loss, and the Gifts of Life. The book, a collection of letters by Dr. Gottlieb, who became paralyzed from the neck down after a car accident more than 25 years ago, is written to his grandson who was diagnosed at fourteen months with Pervasive Developmental Disability, a form of autism. The book is incredibly inspiring and all royalties go to Cure Autism Now and other children’s health organization.

Then, I heard from Elisabeth Sunday, who turned out to be a fine arts photographer who has traveled extensively, and who is the executive director of the Sol Project and the producer of the Soul Portraits. You can see her work here. At the age of 9, Elizabeth’s now 15-year-old daughter, Sahara, started her own non-profit agency to help provide education to girls in Mali and to protect them from female genital mutilation and forced marriage. Learn more about Sahara’s project, The Kamono Fund.

I was interviewed by Elizabeth Rusch for a magazine article she was writing on homework, and she sent me her book, Generation Fix: Young Ideas for a Better World, an anthology of stories of young people who have started projects, much in the same way as Sahara, to change the world.

It’s funny where a common interest in questioning the value of homework will lead you.