By Suzanne Braun Levine
Huff/Post 50

In her widely debated new book Lean In, Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg called it “the ultimate chicken and egg situation.” She is talking about the endless back and forth about what is holding women back from Having It All, whether the system needs to change in order for women to get ahead or whether women need to get ahead to change the system.

Marc Freedman
Encore.org

As the great midlife migration of baby boomers gathers momentum and scale, long-predicted revolutions in longevity and demography are unfolding in front of us. By 2015 we’ll have more Americans over 60 than under 15 — and that’s just the beginning. Demographers are predicting that more than half the children born in the developed world since 2000 will live to 100.

by Richard Eisenberg
NextAvenue.org

“The new ‘Encore Career Handbook’ is a terrific guide that shows you how to make a difference while making a living. If anyone can figure out how to overcome obstacles at the start of your second act, I think it’s Marci Alboher,” says Richard Eisenberg from PBS’ Next Avenue.”

Suzanne Braun Levine
Huff/Post50

“Having it all” is probably the most misunderstood phrase since, as the late great Erma Bombeck once said about the ERA, “one size fits all.” It has come up whenever there is a backlash — and there have been many — against the increasing empowerment of women. The implication that the women’s movement promised or even endorsed that greedy notion is still with us.

By Stefanie Weiss,
Encore.org

All of a sudden, there are movies about life beyond midlife. The – starring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy – has quickly become a critical and box office hit.

The Transition Network
Washington, DC/June 5th

A conversation with Suzanne Braun Levine on “Reinventing Love, Relationships, and Intimacy in Second Adulthood” is being sponsored by the DC Chapter of The Transition Network and Civic Ventures, a nonprofit think tank on Boomers, work and social purpose, that publishes Encore.org for people interested in encore careers, jobs that combine personal meaning, continued income and social impact.

By Suzanne Braun Levine

This has been quite a month!

First of all, I finally held in my hands a copy of my new book How We Love Now; it has been eighteen months since I finished it, and at last it is real. The scary part is that it will soon be in the hands of actual readers, and while I am anxious to hear if it resonates with other women, I am less anxious to hear if it doesn’t, which will undoubtedly happen.

By Suzanne Braun Levine,
Civic Ventures Board Member

I joined the Board of Civic Ventures in 2009, and one of the most inspiring elements of their mission is the discovery and celebration of outstanding social entrepreneurs in the Encore stage of life. The winners of the Purpose Prize have been selected from hundreds of nominees, and having had the honor of being one of the judges, I can tell you that the choices were tough to make; there were many resourceful and courageous candidates for this year’s prizes.

By Suzanne Braun Levine

I’m not big on change. Most of us aren’t. That becomes a bigger problem the more choices we have and the more restless we feel. Second Adulthood is about choices and restlessness and trying something new, but that means change, and many of us get stuck at the edge of the diving board.

Introduction by Louise W. Knight, author
“Jane Addams: Spirit in Action”

By now it should come as no surprise that our foremothers did know a thing or two, but it is always stunning to come upon words of wisdom that are totally relevant today.

My friend Louise Knight, who has written the definitive biography of the reformer Jane Addams recently passed along the essay below. What is stunning here is how these words written almost a century ago speak to the current conversation about Second Adulthood or the Encore stage of life (just check out www.encore.com) in which we have an opportunity turn the wisdom, expertise, and confidence of our pre-fifty years – what Addams calls “moral energy”- to making our world a better place.
– Suzanne Braun Levine