JIM'S JOTTINGS - July 21, 2017 | School of Public Health

Road Work: Did you ever notice that every mid-August, suddenly there is extensive road work in our town? Just in time for WVU move-in day? Yesterday’s paper revealed that Easton Hill is to be closed between July 28 and August 11 to complete the reconfiguration of that key intersection. Hell will ensue! Move-in day is August 11-12. Should we all go camping in Alaska? If you live out that way, best plan alternate routes to get to OLLI classes!

I spent half of Writing Retreat yesterday checking out the Smithsonian interactive class. WOW! I can see that this has real possibilities for our future. If we can get a grant or something or borrow one of the campus interactive classrooms, we could share some of the classes we offer in Morgantown with our friends in Charleston. I certainly vote for continuing this program next year…and exploring how we can interact with Charleston.

Bonnie and I saw “The Big Sick” the other day and highly recommend it. It’s a love story but also shows how a seemingly culturally mis-matched couple find happiness through a serious illness and how the young man, a soon-to-be-famous stand-up comedian, connects with her distraught parents played by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano, in subtle and moving ways.

It looks like “Dunkirk,” that opens today, may be a “must see” film. Its director is Christopher Nolan, better known for splashy Batman and scifi flicks, but, the Times reports, he was not interested in a blood and gore war picture, but in the human stories of the heroic efforts made by the Brits to save the lives of 380,000 soldier trapped at Dunkirk in France. It’s history we should honor, no?

It looks like we can be grateful that we did not have an overabundance of summer classes, enabling Jae to put all our classes in Classroom B until the a/c is replaced in A. I’m sure we are all appreciating the cool. Bids have to be in hand, negotiations with the mall owners done to share the cost, and then the installation has to be completed, so weeks may go by…be patient!

I was sharing some poetry by Wordsworth with our Literary Group on Wednesday and have to share this one with you:

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

The title of this poem is Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802. This would be a bridge over the Thames in London and I think you can just allow yourself to sink into the words and see the scene…but can you then place yourself at the center of the Westover bridge, looking toward the campus on a misty morning or late evening in summer and feel what the poet was suggesting? A lovely evocation…

See you next time.

Jim Held, NOT-president