“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

English author E.M. Forster wrote a mantra for the Moderns; it was this: "only connect." That formula—if we can bleed it both into our lives (our husbands our wives our sons our daughters our parents our friends our work) and into our art (our novels our plays our paintings our films our philanthropic endeavors our business plans), still sounds an apt clarion call for living in the now and, in each moment of that now, placing our best, most adamant energies in one direction: change.

And while the definition of "change" is slippery and vast and particular, I hope to find and follow my own variation on this theme. The space between buying the world a Coke and teaching it to sing is arguably closer now than ever before.

In the process, I hope to find and hold onto those people who can help me on my journey. Love, after all, is the ultimate Action Plan.

— Lea Carpenter