Brain: Dean Phillips

Dr. Morie Gertz, world renown oncologist; Dr. Tyler Phillips, my younger, more accomplished brother; and Mahmood, the Washington, D.C., taxi driver from Morocco with whom I had an hour-long conversation about life, family, and world affairs last week.

Johannes Gutenberg and Sir Alexander Fleming. Imagine life without the printed word and penicillin.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl and This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin.

“Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.” —Erica Jong.

School: Jim Stepnick, who introduced me to Gordon Lightfoot and the world in fifth grade, Arturo Steely, who introduced me to Spanish and Antonio Gaudi in ninth grade, and Ken Roering, my marketing professor in graduate school. Business: my dad, Eddie, and Steve Gill and Mike Arbeiter, who gave me my first full-time job in 1991. Philanthropy: my great-grandfather, Jay Phillips. Art and culture: my mom, Dee Dee. Community service: Irv Shapiro, Mike Hoffman, and Susan Lewis, the folks who first asked me to get involved. Spirituality: Rabbi Max Shapiro and Rabbi J. B. Borenstein. Friends: They know who they are. Family (and food): my grandma, Gayle Cohen. Love: my amazing wife, Karin.

Obama.

Not traveling the world with a friend, a journal, and a backpack after college.

Wonder what to do with my free time.

No. A pill that raises anything by fifty probably reduces something else by a hundred.

People smart. The rest is frosting.

Most likely something we have yet to consider or someone who we are yet to know.

According to my Grandma Abby, “People are like wine. Some improve with age, but only if the grapes were good in the first place.”

Yes. But I’m not smart enough to know what those are.