Jyms of Wyzdom for March 13, 2020

A Call for Wisdom: A pandemic lurks…and what we don’t know is how it will play out, how it will or won’t touch me or you, what gatherings should be postponed or canceled, and so many other questions. Listening to the media is frustrating. What I keep waiting for is someone to tell us, IF we get it, what it will be like, what it will do to me if I do get it, how can it be treated, etc. This event is so different from the last disease scares—SARS, EBOLA, Swine Flu, et al—because we are told our bodies have no immunity to the coronavirus, COVID 19—yet. Therefore, we are all kind of in the dark because of what we don’t know. Better safe than sorry might be the best insurance, at least until we have more experience with it. For we OLLI folks, most of us are in the target of being, potentially, the most vulnerable, so as individual wisdom-keepers, may I suggest that each of us use our decades of accumulated wisdom to do the right thing, as far as we can, as far as we know how. We should be vigilant and take whatever steps each one of us thinks wise, to help COVID 19 go back to its hole and die alone.

You know that I’m at death’s door. But the trouble is that I’m afraid to knock. [Writer W. Somerset Maugham]

Max von Sydow has died at 90:  Mr. von Sydow recalled his last conversation with director Ingmar Bergman, who died in Sweden in 2007 at 89: “He said, ‘Max, you have been the first and the best Stradivarius that I have ever had in my hands.’” Von Sydow was Bergman’s favorite actor, appearing in many now-classic films, including The Virgin Spring, The Seventh Seal, and Wild Strawberries. Hollywood came calling and cast him as Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told. With Liv Ulmann, he made the epic films, The Immigrants and The New Land, perhaps the most moving and important films ever made about the immigrant experience. American audiences will never forget his title role in The Exorcist, and his brief appearances in Star Wars: the Force Awakens, and a season of Game of Thrones on HBO.

Each one must learn for himself the highest wisdom. It cannot be taught in words… Man who work cannot dream, and wisdom comes to us in dreams. [Native American Prophet Smohalla]

What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner. [Writer Collette]

Peace and miracles to each of you!

Jim