Jyms of Wyzdom for October 18, 2019

Opera Reminder: Up next in the Met Live in HD series is Manon by Massennet, to be shown at 12:55 PM on Saturday, October 26 at the Regal Hollywood Cinema.

Movies: Downton Abbey is still here; Judy, the bio-pic with Renee Zellweger is at the Regal (a must-see in my book) + the usual fare we get in this here sophisticated college town.

I am almost sure to be blotted out by death, but sometimes I think it is not impossible that I may continue to live in some other manner after my physical death. I feel every suicide has that doubt: Is what I am going to do worthwhile? Will I be blotted out, or will I continue to live on in another world? Or, as Hamlet wonders, what dreams will come when we leave this body? [Writer Jorge Luis Borges]

I just finished going through Time magazine’s issue dedicated to climate change. It is terrifying, hopeful, urgent, fact-filled, region-by-region for the entire earth…and leaves me wondering what more I could do individually. I know some of our OLLI family have electric or hybrid cars, and I have no doubt many of us have changed out all our light bulbs for LEDs, but what else? Suggestions included: voting for candidates that accept science and the proof of their eyes re: floods, wildfires, rising seas, etc., and, perhaps, take a complete inventory of how each of us lives our lives and list what we could do that would shrink our carbon footprint. We have a much-loved Vermont Castings woodstove, but burning wood is adding carbon to the air…hmmm. I suggest there is a lot of pondering to be done by all of us. This is certainly not entirely a political issue, but it is clearer every year that this is likely an existential crisis that we must face now.

I learned that one can never go back, that one should not every try to go back—that the essence of life is to go forward. Life really is a One Way Street.  [Writer Agatha Christie]

We’re already half through the fall term! I sure hope you are having as much fun as we are. I dare say I am not the only veteran instructor for OLLI that gets as much from teaching a class as from taking one. Remember, I decided to retire from WVU when I realized I was having a lot more fun and fulfillment teaching OLLI wisdom-keepers than those 19-20 year-olds that couldn’t bother to come to class prepared!

I hope we have a decent fall foliage this year. One of our annual delights is to find some country roads to drive when the color is at its peak. If a breeze is blowing the leaves around the car and on the road, so much the better. Our neighbors, the Moore’s, always went to Pocahontas County, claiming it was the best there. We want to go up to Somerset, PA and visit the memorial site for the 9/11 plane crash, and Ohiopyle and Fallingwater are always sure bets. And lunch at Penn Alps…yum!

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you was? [Baseball Star Satchel Paige]

Enjoy!
Jim