[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] good morning. Welcome to the Miami Book Fair the 32nd annual celebration of books and happy sunday to everyone. Truly wonderful to have all of you here. Hopefully youve had an opportunity throughout the week and yesterday to enjoy some of the many sessions to perhaps purchase some books and some other of our highlights here at Miami Book Fair. I would like to give a special greeting to my friends at Miami Book Fair, lets give them a round of applause. [applause] we are truly grateful for your support and friendship over the years and as you may know, this could take place without the thousands of volunteers, faculty and staff of Miami Dade College and its eight campuses throughout Miamidade County so many thanks to Miamidade College. [applause] many thanks to Miamidade College and founder of this wonderful event. Its going to be another wonderful day that we close the book fare later on this evening. And so, please thank you to all the sponsors as well. Without the sponsors organizations and individuals, we couldnt have this spectacular event. Please turn off your cell phone and without further ado i would like you to welcome the womens fund of Miamidade County and ms. March will make the formal introduction. Thank you. [applause] good morning. Thank you so much for joining us today. Im from the womens fund of Miamidade County. An organization that has been in miami for 22 years area we raise money and we get out to the women and girls organization. In the last 22 years weve cannot 3. 7 million to 470 programs. So, thank you for many of the donors that support us today. I also want to thank for helping the you for helping the womens fund participate in todays book fare and now i have the wonderful opportunity to introduce two amazing people and the first one is going to be going to tell you about dale, a worldrenowned author, journalist and popular lecturer has changed the way that many women and men around the globe look at their lives. In 50 years as a writer she has interviewed thousands of women and men and has written 17 books. Her earliest book explored the predictable crisis of the Adult Development named by the library of congress for one of the most influential books of the time. Thats quite an accomplishment. And later books including the silent passage to place the spotlight on taboo subjects like menopause and the sexuality of women. One of the the original agitators to the new York Magazine has been a contributing editor since 1984. The leaders were writing about the character and psychology of men like robert kennedy. Like Margaret Thatcher and saddam hussein. In the latest book, gail focuses on her own packs are just delete the passages as a journalist in the 1960s. In the new York Magazine founder to become one of the premier political profilers of modern times speaking from experience, gail has also focused, also found an exciting new Online Initiative which you should really check out to encourage women of all ages to dream, conquer their fears and act with confidence. Her fascinating no holds story is a testament to resilience, smarts and offers a bold perspective on passages. Not only do i get to introduce gail but i also have the pleasure of introducing to you today Harold Kershner a rabbi at the Temple Israel in the boston suburbs in texas massachusetts. He is the author of more than a dozen books on coping with lifes challenges including the bestselling when bad things happen to good people conquering fear and overcoming lifes disappointments and the book of joe. In his latest book nine essential things ive learned about life, he learned that lessons from the teaching of earning a work of spiritual food for thought, pragmatic advice and inspiration inspiring inspiration for a more fulfilling life and trying times so it is my honor to introduce harold and gail to present to you today. Thank you. [applause] thank you marilyn. Welcome, good morning. Whats traded again. Good morning. Thank you to the womens fund for sponsoring this. Theyve been doing work for 20 years and funded more than 2 million programs were funded to date women and girls in miamidade. I love those organizations. Im going to go over here to my little perch. As marilyn said ive spent many of the last 50 years exploring the passages of may be thousands of women and men and when i advanced into my 70s it was time to turn the lights on my own passages. What worked for me, what could i pass on . It took almost three years to excavate my life and pull it apart and figure out in there and figure out what was i getting at the time why did i make that move . What was i thinking . And to interview people that i i have noticed different stages in my life and get their take on what i was like at the time. So i wrote a memoir called daring my passages because that is the theme that emerged from doing this memoir and thats why i actually encourage you when you get to your 50s or 60s or 70s to write a memoir even if it is just for your family because you actually put together the structure of your life and you still have time to make some additions and projections but you have a wonderful history to lead your grandchildren who are interested in hearing about is when they are ten and 11 to 20 or 20 they will love reading about your history. Its not supposed to go off but it did. First thing i have to say its the curiosity to take the less traveled road. Its the courage to say no. There is a better way when we are older and gray im still here. Furthermore, i have to ask you did you ever try to do something that you have never done before . You failed at it you tried again and you tried again . Until you failed forward. Did you ever find a voice or give a voice to speak for the group or person who didnt have the wherewithal to speak for themselves . Did to deliver cross and age barrier or gender barrier or colored area probably most of the women in this room have caused a gender barrier more than once and thats scary because the secret is to just sit down, cross your arms and ask if you belonged there. That takes confidence and if you dont have a confidence confidence, take acting lessons. [laughter] im going to tell a few stories about the daring moments of my life when i will ask you to have to spend tuesday because the first thing im going to tell you its about being in my mid 20s. Can we click on to that first . So im in my mid20s and on the fourth floor of the New York Herald tribune where i was sequestered in the Womens Department thats the only place that womens journalists could write and im about to take the longest walk of my life into the testosterone zone, the newsroom where all the men wearing ties were able to work. Im going to pitch a story to demand change in journalism in the 1960s. My loss to the boss would kill me if she thought i was taking my story to another editor but he was a incubator in a magazine at the Herald Tribune at the times and girls in the 60s wrote about beauty and thinking and being the perfect wife. We can move the slider to show what the newsroom looked like. Men wrote about the serious issues but why cant a girl right about the same . That is another slide. My first exposure to the man who would become my mentor and there he is committed was his voice. What you do you mean you dont have my reservation . I want my usual people in the whole room. Im bringing the senator to my wife and my tonight and my wife is having broadway. I knew i had like 30 seconds to get it out is that where did you come from . Estrogens found. [laughter] come on in. I got my voice and i said its a story about loser guys that wants to attract beautiful girls to share their beach house on fire island and attract other beautiful girls and so they are having specimen viewing parties. Did you go to a specimen viewing party . Yes. They rejected me. [laughter] great you write it just like you told me. They will collect the flypaper people. Rated as a scene . Up until then it had been who, what, where, why this was the beginning of the new journalism and she was daring me to take the lead. Well, i did not right away. A year later, he was launching new York Magazine as an independent publication having a big party at the four seasons. Well, i couldnt go. My world at the time of delivery is decided walk up to and a half year child, single mother as a result of divorce, so i didnt go to parties at the four seasons. But thats why i see a black limousine and i get a call from the lookout on the first floor a ukrainian seamstress a fancy man is coming up. Okay . Okay. And in barges clay. He says why werent you at the four seasons for the party and i said i dont have a babysitter and i dont have a down. What do you know about politics. My father is a Country Club Republican so i know its about fighting at the dinner table. Great. Then you will understand bobby. Bobby kennedy. I want wanted to cover his president ial campaign. California and oregon. Ive never written a political story. Nows the time to start. I need you to leave in two days. But i dont listen, what you have to do if you want to make your name as a journalist. Dont write a lot of little stories that matter how good they are no one is going to remember them create you have to grab onto the big idea something a big idea something everybody is talking about but they dont know why. That was about the best career advice i had so i went off to cover Bobby Kennedy scared to death and i asked my younger sisters to stay with my child and she was much younger than i part of the me generation and she had been caught up in the grand magic vitamin experiment otherwise known as and i got her out of that she was willing to stay with my child when i had trouble from work so we could both make it. One day on the campaign the senator was taking a trip up and down the Cascade Mountains of oregon and none of the Senior Correspondents wanted to go. I finally had a chance to get on the plane. And one little town after another kennedy faced a hostile crowd of gun toting residents. Men with a spare a raccoon or possum on each shoulder and always a gun and one young man stopped and talked tapped on the shoulder and said ive been waiting for two hours to tell you i will shoot somebody if i see someone like you in the white house. So, kennedy knew he was facing. He pretended not to hear and he walked upon the courts and he faced the crowd and tried to engage them in a friendly debate about limiting the spread of guns. You can imagine how popular that subject was. Back on the plane they decided all of a sudden i hear would you like to sit up here . He asked his aid to hand him his overcoat and it was five years since president kennedy had been assassinated but he was still wearing his brothers clothes. Was a poignant moment. We talked about that. And then as we approached portland you couldnt see anything. We couldnt see that another plane was heading to the heading straight for the craft and it was dropping and my stomach flipped and in the middle of the drop, kennedy said either mccarthy was desperate but i didnt know that he was that desperate. That gave me another site to be coincided with the truth. He had seen so much death in his family that he was a fatalist. He knew he was a target and he kept right on daring to talk about limiting the spread of guns and two nights later his own life was ended at the point of a gun and it makes us stop and think about how far weve come today. From the title of my book you might think i was born here list but nothing could be further from the truth. We can move onto another slide want to get off at south one. In fact i am a naturally fearful person. I had to find a way to act. I had to be willing to fail in order to take a risk trying to do things id ive never done before and learning from them by following Bobby Kennedy to write about politics and then i found out on the trip i could write about a character of positions rather than the horse race and i came to understand gradually that issues are today with character was yesterday and will be tomorrow. And those of you that were lucky enough to hear jon meacham talking about george h. W. Bush heard that story of his character shines straight through his life and actually very interesting peggy noonan also spoke about Ronald Reagan and how people always said i miss his optimism. She said he wasnt optimistic. He actually was rather pessimistic. What he was as confident and that is what give other people a sense of optimism because he believed in himself and the American People and in our system. When i tried to overcome my fear by taking the leap even if i didnt plan on my feet the first time, it made me stronger and so i developed a habit. When i fear i dare and you if you read about me in the positive reviews, and i hope those are the only ones you read, you might think she just sailed right through. My career almost ended before it began. After 28 i was blindsided by tourists, my husband was unfaithful and to change my selfrespect i had to leave the marriage and i was left with a two and a half year old daughter who i really had to protect and as a single mother like so many young women today are choosing to be, i found myself struggling just to make a living and strike a balance between being a mother and building a career and scrambled to play the rent. I couldnt bear to leave my child with babysitters. I thought can i really afford to launch career as a freelance writer whos been to take me seriously im only in my 20s. I could have given up and gotten a job selling housewares that maybe you become a cspan if become a cspan invited that spark of creativity with the selfdoubt and so i walked in and i wrote my first book in novel. It failed. But it attracted offers to be a contributing editor to more than one magazine including new York Magazine and thats how i felt forward and up then my life as a writer made me there. Anon boots and blue suede hotpants and sashaying down the streets of new york with a offduty Police Officer thing as my pimp but it allowed me to write as a violent period of prostitution in new york and later to make a movie of it called hustling with joe cleburne. And you probably think that it was brash of me to follow Hillary Clinton into the ladies room at a conference where we were both speaking that she let her hair down it was 1994 and she said i dont know what to do anymore being blamed for everything she was being blamed for the loss in the Midterm Election so she also admitted she was going through menopause. Even first ladies have been supposed to be covered menopause but at the time it was a taboo. Mothers didnt even talk about it. Totally zip the web so she thanked me for writing this violent passage of the kind of the kind of bill created a little bond so after that i followed her for vanity fair, she and bill clinton for ten years and wrote a biography and im still fascinated by her. What you ever dare to step out of your comfort zone way out to discover something about yourself or about the world . But pretend im 32. I dare to insist that clay send me to Northern Ireland at the peak of the troubles and he says what does that have to do with new york . It is the story about the women. The men are all in jail. Margaret thatcher put them there. They are even showing british soldiers. That sounds like a story. But be careful. By that time we were the time we were living together so he had a secondary motive. Northern ireland, january 1972 sunday. It happened so fast i couldnt delete it. We were just climbing down the hill from a peaceful civil rights march singing. All the neighbors, we get down to the arcades in the british switchers and we go through all rituals of the dangerous Games Committee for their tear gas at us and he vomited back. The drag those back to safety and then its all over and everybody drops back to square people grading their neighbors. But i notice that there is a ring of tanks around the outside so i crawl up on the outdoor staircase on the block to get a better view and standing next to the young boy and asking him a question how the gas canisters so far backs. All of a sudden out of the blue bullet flies into his face and its a bloody mess and he drops it and they didnt over and im trying to think how i can fix it because of david cook up until that time i thought everything could be mended but i couldnt i didnt even have time to do that because all of a sudden there was crossfire and the man behind me shouts get down, get down and i get down and all these other people piling on us and we are wound up like a caterpillar inching up the steps outside of this outdoor staircase trying to get into somebodys house. I wasnt about to jump out in crossfire until the bullet passed right by my nose and embedded itself in the brick wall and then i had to push on the door and we were taking it to safety. While it took about an hour, and finally it was over, i went down and the ira commander came over and apologized for confiscating my film. I said but that im not giving up my tape recorder. Was it running the whole time, we will use it and they and be used as later in court. He directed me afterwards the pay phone and i called clay the one person i thought would be able to save me from my peers. How is the story coming . Thirteen people were just slaughtered here. Hold on a minute im watching it on cbs news now hes exiting in new york perfectly safe. He said they they were calling it bloody sunday. Outlook you dont have to be in the front line just stay with the women cost a safe. They could have killed him but how would he know what was really happening . He couldnt make it go away. Nobody can. Its the first confrontation with our company. And the power powerful ideas to cooper. No one was with me. No one could keep me safe. No one would ever leave me alone. Welcome back home it took me six months before the trauma, put me into some intruders shook me and sh