Greetings, from the week’s ventures up the mountain then down to the city.
On this Sunday morning both locales are firmly in future view, if not yet in play!
There’s a bit more on these parallel paths toward the end of today’s post, along with a few of the week’s news highlights.
On a logistical note: Now through at least May, newShrink may be briefer postcard editions some weeks, if at all. Finishing-up is under way with deadlines on several financial, legal, and personal/professional things. All of it’s positive or at least productive, some even fun and creative. Just time-consuming.
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Today’s title-images and quote of the wizard Merlin character, from T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, packed a powerful punch from newShrink perspectives of depth psychology and soul. (Spookily, an image of Merlin had appeared a few weeks back, a brief but noisily specific harbinger in a 2.4.24 dream snippet — apropos of no known context at the time.)
Well, yeah, that’s how these happen…
synchronicity!
On Monday longtime journalist and reader-friend Ann Ahern Allen happened to share her online post of the full T. H. White quote with the lovely illustration of Merlin. I had just come to Asheville the afternoon before to attend an immersive program about teaching and learning with “OLLI.” (That’s the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the university there.)
By the time of Ann’s post, from my program I was feeling inspired and a bit “baptized in wisdom…,” to borrow a phrase I wish I had written. Frye Gaillard, another gifted writer and a reader-friend, had used it in an online post-tribute to Jane Goodall as she turned 90. He described her as “one of the great human beings of our time. I heard her speak one time in Charlotte; I felt like I’d been baptized in wisdom and decency.” (If you haven’t discovered and read Frye’s books, columns or essays over the years, this kind of writing, head and heart is good reason you may want to.)
The passage has prompted Ann, me and some others to put the T. H. White classic high on the pleasure re-reading, first time and discussion lists.
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Here is the full quote from The Once and Future King:
The Art of Learning
“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails.
You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds.
There is only one thing for it then - to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.
Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”
- T. H. White, The Once and Future King
Through the Merlin character this passage draws obvious links with OLLI’s core missions around learning and the content-purpose of my trip.
OLLI at UNC-Asheville
For those who can use a refresher the 2.26.24 edition of newShrink, Tracking the Wild Grownup, introduced and discussed the Asheville OLLI program. The “meet OLLI”section begins under the header “on initiated grownups, conscious adulthood,” after the “closer to home” section. From the institute’s website:
“The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNC Asheville (formerly the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement) is an award-winning, internationally-acclaimed learning community dedicated to promoting lifelong learning, leadership, community service, and research. We opened our doors in 1988 as a department of the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Our goal is to enable our members to thrive in life’s second half.
Housed atop a prominent campus hilltop since 2003 in the state-of-the-art Reuter Center, OLLI at UNC-Asheville embraces a comprehensive array of programs in the arts and humanities, professionals’ career specialty areas, the natural world, civic engagement, wellness, life transition and retirement relocation planning…”
A few highlights from the extremely well-organized, professionally conducted “You Too Can Teach” program day:
Our group was about 20 in well-appointed conference space, a half-dozen or 10 more actively participating remotely via Zoom, the college-for-seniors program chair plus a panel of 4 decade-long members who also teach.
Participants included brand-new members like me, several who have for years attended classes along with the many in-person and remote lectures, interest groups and activities included with the $75 annual membership, and some long-experienced in both who were there to share what they know.
I found it encouraging that about even numbers of men and women participated that day, a pattern consistent with OLLI membership and numbers who teach or otherwise participate.
Professional backgrounds, plus interest-areas consistent with or in totally different areas, were an eclectic mix. Some examples: An astrophysicist passionate about literature he never had time or resources for; a veteran trainer in a medical school now teaching about his passion, Japanese history; a couple of lawyers, one wanting to teach on his Shakespeare topic and the other drilling down to use her expertise to help lay people; a corporate trainer in science industry now teaching on her specialty, Bob Dylan’s music… And so on.
OLLI’s longtime college-for-seniors participants seem clearly — by design — to be both teachers and learners. There are free course-voucher credits for members and families of those who teach. There’s an astonishing level of technical, skill-development and multiple subject-area support for those who teach, from member learners and staff.
Impressively, most classes and other OLLI programs where possible have in-person, remote/Zoom, or well-integrated hybrid options for participation.
The College for Seniors course fees seem to me relatively modest to reasonable, and there are hardship scholarships to encourage participation regardless of financial need. The annual fee enables members to get a university ID in order to use the university library, brand-new, state-of-the-art outdoor track and other fitness facilities.
Over years I have encountered various such programs and institutions that have had similar stated missions and goals, but a disappointing lack of depth or consistency of execution. So far in this one I’m finding impressive level of complexity, substance, professional savvy across a range of skill and subject areas, and facility and technical proficiency. From my part I am gearing-up to attend some quarterly classes while fine-tuning courses I might want to teach and beginning the proposal-submission process under way for a few quarters later. I’m also interested in working with the Life Transition assistance program and the 7-week, one day a week fall Leadership Asheville Seniors program. In this participants visit and study the city’s government, community, court, and various agencies to understand and respond in various ways to current key issues there.
Worth noting, I’ve learned there are OLLI programs at other states’ universities and colleges. I am aware of ones at Duke and UNC-Wilmington in North Carolina. Please be aware that I am familiar only with Asheville, and do your own research on others if interested. I would love to hear what you find.
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Reflecting on OLLI while circling back to today’s theme, the Merlin quote makes a connection that I had never before heard or considered. I found it fresh and moving:
on learning + sadness
While in Asheville this link of learning as antidote to sadness struck a chord for me beyond its obvious topical connection with OLLI’s learning mission and this trip’s purpose. During this and a couple of other, largely solo trips I had begun noticing and reflecting on a gradual shift: For some time now, my very long, some 40-year downright aversion to these very mountain locales seems to be… gone?
Many near me over years have heard, and can attest to my objection to the certain casts of light and air of melancholy hovering over these regions… my annoying association of mountains with misty depressing damp, mildewy smell and mold.
But somehow something, not by conscious intent, in the past couple of years has recalled, or reconnected, those very bittersweet-at-best elements as integral, maybe even defining of the place’s timeless appeal, beauty and soulful depths.
In these ways the region had been vibrantly, spiritually alive for me throughout childhood and youth. However, or for what reasons, that has returned for me, I am grateful.
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From the news week here are a few headlines…
news clips
On aftermath of the tragic Israeli attack killing of Gaza-bound aid workers I found David Brooks at his solid, deeply informed and well-reported best in Friday night’s look at the week:
David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart, PBS News Hour
This one was hard to ignore, and with stunningly low apparent impacts in ssuch densely urban areas:
Aftershocks rattle NYC area after earthquake sent tremors across East Coast (The Washington Post)
This one was a Charlotte front-page smile-story, some important good impacts on a serious need — and this organization is apparently in many other cities too.
Visit Cakeable Cafe for coffee — and a new perspective (The Charlotte Observer)
Cakeable, a nonprofit program offering vocational training for adults who live with intellectual and developmental disabilities, is expanding to become Cakeable Cafe. At the gathering space, the newly trained employees will practice their skills on the front lines of service.
The story has some standout concerning statistics. Nationwide only 21% of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities are employed (and North Carolina ranks even worse behind other states.)
Looking toward the total solar eclipse tomorrow across a wide swath of the nation, Maria Popova’s midweek Brain Pickings surfaced this gem from Virginia Woolf.
FROM THE ARCHIVE | Darkness in the Celestial Lighthouse: Virginia Woolf’s Arresting 1927 Account of a Total Solar Eclipse (The Marginalian)
More practically, logistics for Monday’s event vary widely depending on your distance from the zone of totality. What all viewing areas have in common is the critical eye-safety warning to wear the real protective glasses for the smallest peek at the sun from start to finish — and the need to make sure children and the unaware are alerted. The story here applies only to one area, but there is a cool color U.S. map illustrating the path of totality across the nation, plus shade variations to show areas of partial eclipse.
Path of the April 8, 2024, eclipse and how to view it (Axios Charlotte)
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Circling back to today’s lede up the mountain and down to city…
in future sights, tale of two cities
As may be apparent, the educational foray in hill-country Asheville portrayed here (plus delightful touches with grand-Miz-E) went as planned and surpassed expectations. More time spent there is ahead, especially during the week.
Later in the week, focus shifted to continued catch-up on my hometown Charlotte’s offerings in and around the city center. Lunches with friends and walks along stretches of the great cross-town greenway are a current hit. (I’m like a tourist; riding the light rail or trolley anywhere is a super thrill!)
As a step toward full downsizing, sights continue to be on the chosen Charlotte condo location in a central city neighborhood — as soon as availability occurs and competitive bidding allows. (In a sense, though not the primary driver, investment in this particular way honors both of my late parents’ memory.)
Another desired step, before or perhaps not until after selling and leaving the lake, is a comparably just-enough-sized condo in Asheville, for divided time enjoying connection and benefits of both communities. (The city-to-city drive is far easier, at times even quicker, than now-crazy-congested, traffic-choked 35-mile Lake Norman-to-Charlotte. That’s a commute I used to do twice daily for over a decade, usually in about 50 minutes or less each way!)
To ensure future options for what will hopefully be much longer-term if ever, when-and-if healthcare needs indicate — a bit like college with backup applications — future-resident wait-listings are now set at two continuing-care retirement communities in Charlotte and a lovely one in Asheville. (Again, both horrific experience of and with my late mother and my own years working with adults on all kinds of life transitions in psychotherapy practice color these matters of planning and choices — and move me to bring them up for discussion.)
As for whether and when to sell, downsize and leave Lake Norman, that could wind up sooner than ever imagined — and for previously unimaginable reason: politics. Anticipating the aggressively nasty, giant-flag-flying, sloganeering in-your-face-in-your-own-backyard of another election-year summer on the water is nearly unbearable.
Subjects for another day and newShrink…
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some wild things
Today I’ll leave you with a closing display of the private finale performed for me before leaving Asheville. To attend the OLLI program I had been staying again at the home of my dear and generous friends while they were away.
Out at the trash and recycle cans, I was all alone when this slowly gathering wild-fowl parade moved across my field of vision. So it seemed only fair and right to take and appreciate the little show as quite personal, for my benefit!
Never having seen a live turkey fanning its tail in full display, I looked it up to confirm that it’s mating-courtship behavior. (I decided to be flattered!)
In Native American and other indigenous traditions wild turkey as a totem or sighting heralds abundance, rebirth (appropriate to the Easter Monday sighting), being nourishing and desirable for others, and honoring connection with the Earth. (OK, hey, I’ll take it.)
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And, that is all I have! Talk to you soon.
🦋💙 tish
… it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
— William Stafford, “A Ritual to Read to Each Other”
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