OLLI and Me

by Marvin Goldman

Marvin and Joyce Goldman

One of my recent joys is my participation in our local branch of OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute). OLLI is run by the UC Davis Extension and offers courses to seniors on a myriad of topics.

I joined OLLI a couple of years ago in order to participate in their ongoing weekly "Whither America" class. Here some 25 of us discuss and pontificate on any topic of interest, regardless of our level of expertise. I find it exhilarating to learn about what's new with California water, or immigration, or health care or the economy. We rarely come to closure on a topic, but we leave much better informed and able to ask significant questions in a more erudite manner. Many of my classmates will spend time on the Internet and in the library in preparation for next week's topic, and I've seldom been disappointed. Under Charlie Judson's leadership, we try to keep order and stay civil and generally succeed.

My other course is "The New Yorker," in which we pick two or three articles in the current issues of the magazine and discuss and comment on them on Friday mornings. It's lots of fun and the 15-20 of us usually have something unique to add to the interchange. As an ex-New Yorker, I especially like to vicariously revisit my old home, although I could never move back there. I like Davis too much.

Last year I offered three new courses to our OLLI lineup: "Planning for our Energy Future," "Our Habitable Planet," and "Science Grand Rounds." They were mainly the result of an idea I had plus a lot of careful Google culling and my learning how to use PowerPoint. The last one ended with my brief discussion of cardiology advances and was followed a few hours later with me going to the hospital for a coronary quadruple bypass operation. I think I'll change the topics if I offer that course again. I've had fun trying to add some science to the OLLI course list, which is heavy on the humanities and arts.

I am impressed and pleased with the breadth and depth of experience and expertise we have in our classes. It's a challenge for me every week to come prepared and to contribute to the discussions. I feel that it is a valuable adjunct to senior mental health to be able to exercise my mind and still show curiosity about such a wide panoply of subjects. The OLLI classes, plus my memoirs writing class, keep me on my mental toes every day of the week and often have me wandering off into new topics that have been newly presented to me in one of the sessions. I used to worry about losing it mentally after I retired, but thanks to all these classes and my love of travel, that's one worry I don't have any more.