PRESIDENT'S CORNER - May 20, 2016 | School of Public Health

Back in the saddle again…

In the Literary Discussion Group (that meets at the Senior Mons), we read a piece that referred to the Merrill Lynch and Age Wave, a consultancy that studies retirement trends…and what caught my attention was the following (and I paraphrase)…

Retirees that give back and volunteer have better health and have greater self-esteem than those who do not.
The best reason to give $$$ is to make a difference in the lives of others.
In the next few years, seniors will give back about $6.6 trillion in cash donations and around $1.4 trillion in the value of their 58 billion hours of volunteer work!

The piece went on to talk about the value of volunteering and how it is easier for those of us that are now empty-nesters, retired from careers, and at loose ends. I have been so impressed and encouraged by YOU OLLI members that give so much of yourselves to Lifelong Learning and especially to those of you in your 80s that do whatever you can. And yet, I have heard quite a few people worrying about how many of our members DO NOT volunteer, so this column is meant to encourage you to think about all the self-esteem you may be missing out on, not to mention the good fellowship of working on a committee and the months and years you may be cutting off your life expectancy by sitting at home when you could be HERE giving, giving, giving!

Books: Here’s an idea…what are you reading that you think might be of interest to our members? If you’d like to recommend something, please send me the title and a brief couple of sentences that make your case, and I’ll start putting these in my column. Here’s one I got recently, from listening to the author, Michael Kinsley, on Charlie Rose: Old Age, a Beginner’s Guide. Kinsley has gone public with his fight against Parkinson’s disease, writing from the perspective of a baby boomer now facing a terminal illness. There’s quite a bit about the disease but also many fine suggestions for coping with and mastering the various realities of aging.

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” [Sir Winston Churchill]

“...As she grew older, she was aware of her changing position on mortality. In her youth, the topic of death was philosophical; in her thirties it was unbearable and in her forties unavoidable. In her fifties, she had dealt with it in more rational terms, arranging her last testament, itemizing assets and heirlooms, spelling out the organ donation, detailing the exact words for her living will. Now, in her sixties, she was back to being philosophical. Death was not a loss of life, but the culmination of a series of releases. It was devolving into less and less. You had to release yourself from vanity, desire, ambition, suffering, and frustration - all the accoutrements of the I, the ego. And if you die, you would disappear, leave no trace, evaporate into nothingness...” [Amy Tan, Saving Fish from Drowning]

Jim Held, President