PRESIDENT'S CORNER: October 28, 2016

Halloween Edition: Dia de los Muertos is approaching…it’s the Mexican Day of the Dead that has come to be celebrated around Anglo Halloween, All Saints Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. I grew up deep in Southern California with lots of Mexican pals that were happy to share their family traditions. As we walked to school (yes, in those far off days, we walked), we dropped in to the handy bodega for appropriate candies…I’m talking about necklaces of skulls, little coffin boxes with candy skeletons, wax creations in the shape of skulls and mummies filled with sweet liquids. If you had one of those necklaces, you offered it to your pals who bit off one of the heads (marzipan) with lots of giggling. But what I thought was the very coolest thing was how the Mexicans would prepare a lavish picnic to take to the cemetery to gather round the graves of their ancestors and eat, while honoring the memories, telling stories, and helping the souls on their way to heaven.

Member News: We now have 502 OLLI members, 87 of them in Charleston. This is great news, but we still need about 85 more to meet our goal for this year, but it sure looks like we’ll make it. I wondered how I could follow-up last week’s column on community… Bonnie suggested I might write about “individuality,” and that rang some bells in my thinking. When I see 87 Charleston members, I am thrilled that a new community there is coming together with the individual help of their committee putting together a list of classes and making sure everything runs smoothly.

As individuals in both Morgantown and Charleston, I would like to charge you all to think carefully about exactly what kind of classes you’d like to attend, what kind of community you want, what kind of volunteer activity each of you can contribute as individuals in support of this community. Your individual responses should not be kept secret but should be shared with our director, Jae Haislet, with me, with the chair of the curriculum committee here (Bob Craig) or in Charleston. If we are to grow and remain a committed, excited community of elder scholars, we must keep our classes fresh, new, relevant to all our needs and events that we gladly share with our friends and neighbors. I’m counting on you to complete this assignment!

No hope that ever warmed a human heart
Was lost when that heart crumbled into dust:
The dreams that woke the sunrise of the world are ours
Our dead walk with us daily, hand in hand.
But every joy we know to give or keep;
By hearts more gentle, and by eyes more true,
They are our own, and undivided still.

In memory! In memory of the dead!
In tenderness and hope for all who live!
Peace with you, ye that lie at rest!
Hope with you, ye that live and yet must face
The pain of living!
In memory, in hope, in tenderness!

[Sharlot Mabridth Hall (1870–1943), "Memoriam”, Cactus and Pine: Songs of the Southwest, 1910]

Happy Halloween, Folks
Jim Held, President