FLEXING MY MIND

     I've had the pleasure of being back in a classroom again, thanks to the efforts of  two very kind women named Bernice and Joan.  They invited me to visit the University of Delaware in Wilmington where they study with the Academy of Lifelong Learning.  Joan took me to her poetry class and shared her textbook, Garrison Keillor's "Great Poems." Our instructor was a retired CUNY lit professor with a great sense of humor, who encouraged class discussion and kept things lively with references to works other than the six assigned poems.  About thirty other senior students discussed and read aloud Robert Hedin's tribute to the veterans of World War II, "The Old Liberators, followed by Donald Hall's "Naming Horses," Stanley Kunitz's slam to your heart "The Portrait," Erica Jong's wry " The Fourposter",  Raymond Carver's lovely "Waiting," and Gerard Manley Hopkins exuberant and timely celebration of "Spring."  With this selection we'd been lead through different moods, different eras, varied styles and become acqauinted or reacquainted with some of the fine poets of our time.  On a second visit we added works by Stephen Dunn, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Kenneth Rexroth.  I marveled again at how much can be said in relatively few words, how poetry lingers in the mind and expands your thought.

     In an afternoon session I chose to sit in with the group spending a semester studying Shubert's music.  We heard the Cello Quintet in C Major on a DVD recorded in Lincoln Center.  The sound system was excellent, and, as always, I enjoyed hearing music with others.  Opting for something really difficult I sat in on one session of "Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition."  I found it too taxing for a brilliant spring day - perhaps in November I'll be able to tighten my focus.  Or not.

       I was too late to register for this semester but look forward to September.  The Spring Catalog offered more than a hundred courses, from computer labs, to band, to science and philosophy and music.  All courses are taught by volunteers who are expert in their fields; tuition is very modest.  The 2000 members meet in a handsome contemporary building on the campus.  A soaring central meeting hall/lounge is flanked by classrooms.  There is a pleasant patio,a dining hall and small cafeteria.  Of course since you're already connected to Gather you have brain food and diversion available to you 24 hours a day at your fingertips, with no age requirements.