End of the Fall Term at OLLI

One of the reasons I have found it hard to contribute to this supposedly weekly blog of late is that I have had a heavy schedule of classes with OLLI, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute's adult learning course offered in this city through the University of Cincinnati. I first started with OLLI in the summer of 2014--I signed up even while I was living in Spain--and attended the summer program of single-session lectures on different topics. Fall, winter, and spring sessions offer a combination of single-session lectures and regular six or eight-week courses that meet once a week.

I have two good multiple-week courses this fall. Financial Planning is one of those for which I was long overdue. It would be stretching the truth to say that I have enjoyed it. Rather, I found it valuable, since I have now reached the age where decisions have to be made about the various pots of money that I put away toward retirement during my working life. I have been fortunate to have a partner who was more interested than I in exploring investments and following the stock market; of course I should have been more involved to maximize the value of my savings, but frankly, I found it boring. Now after this class I am motivated, and while I still find investments tiresome, I no longer pass over the emails from the organizations where my money is sitting, nor do I pass the statements on without opening them. That is a small but positive and measurable outcome, I told the instructor at my last class.

The second full-term class was called Listening-Confrontation Skills: More Joy in Relationships. I took the course to concentrate on personal relationships, but much of the earlier sessions used examples from work and parent-child relationships, which have less applicability for me. It has been a long and difficult series, but the instructor asked us at the beginning not to judge the course until the final session. I heard him, but even though we have two make-up classes still to go this coming week, I can now confidently say that I have benefited from the course--at least one major argument has been averted using the techniques practiced in the class.

And then there are several one-time classes that I have experienced this term, usually presented as a lecture by a person with a passion:

• What We Wore: American Fashion, 1900–1970
• Reflections of a Tuskegee Airman, the remarkable story of two men who grew up next to each other but separately in Cincinnati, flew together but separately over Europe in WWII, and only met 50 years later
• Writers, Readers, and Buyers of Books, five presenters from the book scene in Cincinnati
• Chocolate, Chili, and Riverboats, a history of some of the families and institutions of Cincinnati
• Getting the Scoop: Maryanne Zeleznik at WVXU News, the local NPR station
• They Invented What?, a roundup of interesting inventions and how they came to be, together with a little information about patent law
• Oddities of England, dispelling the myth that the British are prim and proper--though I knew that already from my time with Brits in Spain, and
• An Autumn Tram Tour of Spring Grove Cemetery, the second largest cemetery in the U.S. and a National Historic Landmark

A discerning reader may note that many of my selections have to do with events and topics introducing me to the history and culture of my new home. It came as something of a surprise to me this week to realize that we are now approaching the one-and-a-half year mark of living in Cincinnati.  OLLI is one of the opportunities that has made the transition from living in Spain easier and more enjoyable, and for that I am grateful.

More Amazing Grace

On July 12 I wrote about our first visit to The Gathering at Northern Hills, a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Cincinnati, and my joy at hearing and singing new words to the hymn Amazing Grace. At the time I did not know the author of those new words.

Now four months later, I confess that I have been spending most Sunday mornings with this congregation. We have been welcomed and are getting to know numerous loving and caring people,  and we always find the services enlightening, hopeful, and thought-provoking. A large part of the intellectual stimulation comes from the congregation's minister, Rev. Doug Slagle.  Today, following his message on Gratitude and Confession, we sang Amazing Grace again, and this time, the name of the adaptor was given in the program.

Amazing Grace

Text by John Newton; revised by Rev. Doug Slagle

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

That loved a soul like me.

I once was lost but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see!

'Twas grace that taught my heart to love,

And grace such love received;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour 'twas first perceived!

Through many dangers, toils, and snares,

We have already come;

'Tis grace that brought us safe thus far,

And grace will lead us home.

When we've been here ten thousand years,

Together just as one,

We've no less days to sing love's praise

Than when we'd first begun!