PRESIDENT'S CORNER: April 7, 2017

Has winter returned? Bon Hiver! But it’ll be warm by tomorrow, so have no fear. Bonnie and I think of early spring as the silly season where you just have to wait a day for the weather to change and do weird, unexpected things. So, don’t fight it…have another cuppa and listen to some good music or read another book…summer will come.

Spring Term: Only a week to wait for spring classes to begin at OLLI. As one of our faculty, I really enjoy digging into my topic and preparing my materials. I embraced PowerPoint as soon as we had computers and classrooms equipped with projectors on campus. Since I teach a highly visual subject (theater/drama/cinema) it makes complete sense to illustrate every talk. With the tools we have available, it becomes a real scavenger hunt to get on Bing or Google images to find just the right pictures.

Life has got to be lived—that’s all there is to it. [Eleanor Roosevelt]

Is anyone watching “The Feud” on Fox, about Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. It’s delicious…look at this:

There’s that “You’re only as old as you feel” business, which is fine to a point, but you can’t be Shirley Temple on the Good Ship Lollipop forever. Sooner or later, dammit, you’re OLD. [Joan Crawford]

Passover: …begins at sundown on Monday, April 10 and then Easter weekend begins next Friday, so whatever your faith tradition, it’s likely to be a busy week of consecration, commemoration, prayer, observance, celebration, sorrow…well, you know. To one and all, blessings of the season to you and yours.

And finally…

On the whole, age comes more gently to those who have some doorway into an abstract world—art or philosophy or learning—regions where the years are scarcely noticed and the young and the old can meet in a pale, truthful light. [Writer Freya Stark]

Isn’t that a lovely thought?

Jim Held, President