Life Advice From Kids

I wanted to mix it up a bit and since I've been spending so much time with my nephews on vacation I thought it would be fun to ask them the same question I've been asking older people. It's interesting to see the perspectives of people in the final chapters of their lives versus those just starting to crack the book.

My nephews are great kids - they're very different from each other and all really interesting in their own way. They play, they fight, they all mature in different ways.

Jackson's extremely sharp - nothing gets by him... even when you want it to. In a room full of adults, he'll catch everything they say and then he'll try to figure it out if it's something he's never heard before. Because of his maturity and ease when he speaks with adults, it's easy to forget he's only seven. I can picture him running a very succesful hedge fund one day. His brother, Cooper's, the comedian. He loves to laugh and to make people laugh. When he realized that doing "the robot" dance made me laugh, he did it for me over and over again. Most likely to end up a stand-up comedian, hopefully he'll learn to leave them laughing. Their cousin, Neal, is quiet around strangers yet when he comes back home will ask his parents about every single thing he overheard the adults saying. He's an observer. More cautious of new experiences than the other kids, he's also fiercely loyal to them. He could be the head of an old school Mafia family. His brother, Liam, is the youngest of the nephews (he just turned four) and he's "delicious" as my grandma would say. While most kids have difficulty sharing, Liam is happy to share with people he loves. When the other boys are running around outside, Liam will climb onto the couch with you and cuddle. He likes people, makes friends easily, and is just a little bit sneaky. Neal's toys seem to always magically end up in his room. He'd make a brilliant politician.

Jackson, age 7.



Cooper, age 4.



Neal, age 6.



Liam, age 4.

Keep Doing What You Love Doing

I'm on vacation in Aspen, Colorado this week. It's nice to get a change of atmosphere even if it does involve sharing a rented apartment with nearly every member of my family. And, unlike in LA, the air here is... um, what's that word... fresh. I also decided to ask my advice question a little differently. A couple of people have written to me requesting that I ask for advice for everyone - not just me. Though my thought has always been that in getting advice for myself, people could take what's applicable to them and do with it what they want, I figured I'd try something new. I like getting advice from the people who support the blog and even if I don't agree with it all, I'm willing to try things different ways to see how it goes.

I met Esther while waiting for my sister to gather her kids and meet me at the gondola which goes up to Aspen Mountain. After doing my usual mediocre interviewing job, I found out she had worked as a Senior Producer at 60 Minutes, a show I love and watch every week. Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Steve Kroft, Mike Wallace, and Andy Rooney, you curmudgeonly bastard - I'd love to speak with all of you. I have a lot to learn.