Recently I celebrated my birthday, in person, with dozens of vaccinated friends and family members. It was a joyful occasion and I felt and still feel deeply grateful.

But every new year of my life brings new questions. Here are just a few that I’m pondering at the moment:

  1. How do I co-raise a teenager? My daughter just turned 13. I recently had this breakthrough, but I have so many more questions.
  2. What’s the next step in my writing career? I have a novel coming out in September. I have two new novels in progress, one in second draft form, another with the first draft nearly complete. But I’m not sure I should even try to get them published yet. Maybe I should go back to short fiction first.
  3. What am I doing with music? I still co-own a record label, but we haven’t been very active lately. But I still enjoy making music with my friends, and intend to keep doing so. But how much time should I invest, and what are the opportunity costs?
  4. How do I best protect my health and health span in the coming years?
  5. What can I do to prevent my country from going down the drain? How do I best fight against voter suppression, corporate lobbyists, and opportunistic, hate-mongering agents of chaos like Donald Trump?
  6. What can I do to help reverse human-driven climate change? Or are we past the point of no return?
  7. What is the fastest way I can achieve financial freedom, which would allow me to travel more and work fewer hours?

I’m guessing 100% of the people who read this post will be asking themselves at least one of the questions above.

That’s all I have this week. No answers — just questions. Feel free to share your own questions and experiences in the comments.