In our town, we have an organization named "Learning Is ForEver", a.k.a. "LIFE". It was founded by retired university faculty and is about 10 years old. I am a whole-hearted supporter of the group, which accepts proposals for presentations and field trips, organizing them into a schedule for members. The group is about 10 years old and is parallel to similar organizations near other colleges and universities.
I get to be around people over 60 quite often. I have a personal rule that everyone over 60 has had some wonderful experiences. Not everyone wants to go to the trouble of speaking or writing about their experiences or views but they all have them. It is not difficult to find 'one-noters' who only want to talk about the dangers of climate change or the silver standard or some other fixation. For me, they are usually not too much fun to listen to or read.
But many retired men and women have knowledge of something I wish I knew about. The better presenters can sometimes clear up an area with basic orientation comments that suddenly make engines or a disease or bluebirds much more understandable than ever before.
There is a ton of thinking and writing about the subject of story. Humans probably have a special ability to relate to and remember a story, such of an adventure or the overcoming of a hardship or threat. I love a good story, too, even though it seems that I get more persnickety about what story seems worth attending to. Maybe I have heard too many.
Maybe not. The other day, I was showing a woman how easy and fast it is to buy and possess a book on my Kindle. I rarely read anything that could be called a romance but that category was handy and I opened it up. The first book that I saw was something called "Jailbird" by Heather Huffman. I pressed the wrong key and Bingo! I had purchased the book for $3.99. There are various hoops I could jump through to rescind the purchase but I figured a chance event like that might be worth following up. I read the book over a couple of days and enjoyed the story.
But normally, I tend to concentrate on books that tell me neat stuff about all aspects of the world that I didn't know. The Discovery channel and The Learning Channel and the explosion of the world wide web convince me that as people get older, they know more but they want to know even more. We only have so many high school and college hours and there are always more subjects that we have time for. Over time, our hormonal drives lower and we suddenly realize that there are many things we could understand but don't.
Hearing from some of the retired local pros who have insight, freedom to talk and discuss and reveal is very fulfilling.
--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
