OLLI Course Selections

Among my area's finest opportunities for seniors, which now includes me, has been the Osher Institute, acronym OLLI, where we can take courses and until Covid, mingle with peers.  As an offshoot of the state university, though at a separate campus, it is staffed by university officials who have far exceeded the call of duty in their attentiveness and capability.  Fall semester begins on Rosh Hashana, which affects my course selection, as the Yom Tovim cluster on Tuesday-Wednesday which affects what I can select the first half of the semester, but there is ample opportunity to sign up for my comfortable pace of three courses each week.

Scouring the catalog, I tend to pick out titles first.  I want to improve my writing skills so a course on Writing and on becoming more proficient with Word go to the top of the list.  Now that I have some experience, I've also taken on the legacy of the SCUE Course Guide from college, eliminating those taught by instructors who have given me reason to avoid their courses.  I like history.  I like discussion of events.  While it invites pooled ignorance from uninformed but opinionated peasants, myself very much among them, these sessions can be satisfying places for people like me who derive a certain challenge and satisfaction from tossing around ideas.  One discussion course needs to be among those selected.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I have a lot of peers who like to keep their minds engaged.  As a result, some of what I rank most highly will be oversubscribed, though fairly apportioned by lottery rather than first submission or who complains loudest.  

There are courses, curricula, and people.  Provisions are being set to allow in person attendance, a high priority for me if it can be sustained.  I like the course material and experience to be sure, but for seniors no longer strutting daily in the pageant of our workplaces, being among people has become a very high priority.  Even with the return of a mask mandate, sitting in a lounge of modest social distance still generates a certain amount of banter.  There are comments that guide conversation, a cordiality that really does not duplicate as well on Zoom, which imposes a restraining element of formality.  In person is better.  With prudent precautions, the health risk at present seems acceptable.  It also imposes upon me some welcome preparation, assembling my loose leaf and lunch in a backpack, having me drive there, maybe taking in the putting green at the Porky Oliver Golf Course a short drive away, parts visible from the campus.  As much as I gravitate to My Space, sometimes shared space is better.