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

Lee Kravitz was editor in chief of Parade magazine from 2000 to 2007. Before that, he was the founding editor of React, a magazine for teens, and served as an editorial director of Scholastic Inc. He is currently the board president of Youth Communication, and active on the boards of the Public Education Network, The League, and Youth Service America. A graduate of Yale College and Columbia Journalism School, he lives in New York City and Clinton Corners, New York, with his wife and three children.

After losing his job, Lee Kravitz—a man who had always worked too hard and too much —took stock of his life and decided to spend an entire year making amends and reconnecting with the people and parts of himself he had neglected. Kravitz embarks on ten journeys, traveling everywhere from a refugee camp in Kenya to a monastery in California, and learning along the way that the things we let slip are exactly those that have the power to transform, enrich, enlarge, and complete us. Unfinished Business has prompted multiple speaking engagements, a blog on the Psychology Today Web site, and a groundswell of interest from readers sharing their own stories—the best of which are included in this paperback edition as further inspiration.

The Washington Post - Sarah Halzack

There are hints of self-indulgence…But generally Kravitz writes with an inspiring sincerity. His experiences are so familiar that it would be hard for readers not to reflect on their own unfinished business—and want to tend to it.

Contents

PROLOGUE Compiling the List Ten Things That Truly Matter....................1
CHAPTER ONE Searching for Sorrow's Daughter Finding a Long-Lost Relative....................17
CHAPTER TWO I'm So Sorry for Your Loss Making a Condolence Call....................40
CHAPTER THREE The Check Is in the Mail Repaying a Long-Overdue Debt....................63
CHAPTER FOUR I've Been Thinking of You Since the Planes Struck Reaching Out to a Distant Friend....................83
CHAPTER FIVE Forgive Me the Harm I Wished on You Letting Go of a Grudge....................104
CHAPTER SIX Thank You, Mr. Jarvis Seeking Spiritual Guidance from a Mentor....................114
CHAPTER SEVEN On the Road to Mount Athos Taking the Road Not Taken....................140
CHAPTER EIGHT The Day Eliot Ness Set My Grandfather Straight-Or Did He? Healing a Family's Wounds....................169
CHAPTER NINE I Remember Nana Eulogizing a Loved One....................188
CHAPTER TEN The Circle Grows Wider Keeping a Promise....................194
EPILOGUE Moving Ahead The Journey of a Lifetime....................203