And That's the Truth with Dan Pallotta

This is a great interview with Dan Pallotta, conducted by none other than my dear friend, Terry. I watched Dan's TED Talk, and like Terry says in this interview, I, too, realized I held a common bias - that non-profits should have low overhead. If you share that bias, I would encourage you to watch his compelling arguments to the contrary.

A couple points in the interview particularly struck me, the first one being the misunderstanding that people that are gay and come out, do it once and are done with it. "Sometimes I come out four times in one week," Dan says. He gave the example of how he and his partner are raising triplets, and a cab driver recently asked him how his wife felt about having triplets. He could have side stepped it, he could have lied, but he came out to the cab driver because not only was that more authentic, it held more integrity for his family.

As a special-needs mom, I feel like my "coming out" days are increasing. I am not saying it's the same thing, don't get me wrong, but what I am saying, is it struck a chord with me when Dan said that. More and more I'm getting casual comments and questions about what my 17-year-old will be doing after high school, and more and more I'm torn between being honest, kind, full of integrity, and also self- preservation. There is just so much energy one has for this type of thing.

Dan is an accomplished man, and at one point in the interview Terry steals a famous STM line, "You're not watching enough TV, as 'they' say!" she tells him. I love that she has morphed STM into "they" and I love that she used it. STM and I use that expression a lot (I think I've even blogged about it), because there was a day (and by "day," I mean decades) where we, too, were not watching enough TV. We were doing/going/moving and shaking all the live long day.

No more.

These days we are watching plenty of TV, which brings me to another interesting point Dan made. "Look at your calendar and see what is on it that makes you excited - what are you looking forward to, and do more of that. Follow your passion."

These days, what gives me endless delight is looking at a calendar, and finding at least one day in the week that doesn't have much on it at all, and if it does, it's something like, "change the beds." Put me in my house with great music and candles, and point me towards the laundry room, and I'm a happy, contented, if not blissful, woman. Give me a day like yesterday, where I was running around from sun up to sun down, scarfing Cliff Bars in the car and calling them breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I'm, shall we say, not a happy camper.

Following your bliss isn't always blissful. I do think we make things more complicated than they need to be, however, and if you're at all interested in simplifying, here's a great list of ways to get started.

So, be inspired, be encouraged, be provoked, and enjoy the interview!