News

PRESIDENT'S CORNER - June 24, 2016

As you read this, Bonnie and I will be driving up to Chautauqua, NY to do research for my up-coming class. Actually, it’s for our annual chaplaincy for our church house and chapel there and to partake of the “Roger Rosenblatt & Friends on Creative Expression” theme of the week—each week has a theme. So, next week’s column will be about our adventures there,

Post-Annual Meeting Report: About 80 members gathered at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Star City for a tasty lunch, lots of visiting with friends, and the annual business meeting. Highlights include:

  • The keynote address by our new director, Jae Haislet, discussing her vision and some challenges for our future. She also reported on a very productive meeting with members and friends in Charleston that are ready to move forward in support of their branch activities.
  • Votes to accept the 2016-17 budget and the slate of nominees for the board: Linda Jacknowitz, Judy Minor and Bill Weiss. Of note financially was the recent addition of $93,033 from the School of Public Health—funds left over from the old Center on Aging.
  • The Extra Mile Award was presented to Linda Jacknowitz for her faithful and cheerful service in so many ways.
  • Ten new Honor Roll members were inducted into our Hall of Fame group.
  • The Board will have its first meeting in the new fiscal year on July 11 to elect the officers and begin its work on issues as I have reported recently.
  • Many thanks to all our volunteers and committees!

When you are younger, you get blamed for crimes you never committed, and when you’re older, you begin to get credit for virtues you never possessed. It evens itself out. [Writer I. F. Stone]

Let us cherish and love old age; for it is full of pleasure, if you know how to use it. The best morsel is reserved for last. [Philosopher/Writer Seneca]

Last Sunday afternoon, it was such a pleasure to see several of our community at Heinz Hall for the symphony concert that featured a new “Klezmer Concerto” and the wonderful Mahler 5th Symphony. We ran into Connie and Steven McCluskey, Stan Cohen and Cookie and Bernie Schultz…and then heard that Ann Davidson and a friend were also there…and who else? How fortunate for us all that we have such a musical treasure so close!

Sonnet 8: Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
by William Shakespeare

Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.
Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,
Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tunèd sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering,
Resembling sire and child and happy mother,
Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing;
Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee: "Thou single wilt prove none."

See you next week…
Jim Held, President