Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

2011 Archive

Philip Hodge - Court Jester
Contact: elderjourney-info@uucpa.org

Date	Facilitator	Topic
1/11	Rev Amy	Groups I Have Joined
1/25	Philip	What's Next
2/8	Dan	20th Century Presidents
2/22	Jean Nelson	Elder Journey Treasure Troves
3/8	Lucy Bunch	Roles
3/22	Mona Miller	People in your life
4/12	Philip & Expert	Rise Up Singing
4/26	Dan	Repeatable Jokes for Srs.
5/10	AMY	A Book I Have Enjoyed and Recommend
5/24	Misao Sakamoto	Personal Writing
6/14	LUCY	Your spiritual place
6/28	Sylvia & Expert	Gadgets
7/12	LUCY	You Are What You Eat
7/26	June Bridges	Favorite Poems
8/9	AMY	Family and personal rituals
8/23	Sylvia	My Favorite UUCPA Auction Experience
9/13	DAN	Where were you?
9/27	George Martin	My grandchild(ren)
10/11	LUCY	The God(s) of Your Childhood
10/25	Philip & Expert Susan Owicki	Improv Games
11/8	AMY	Attend Your Own Memorial Service
11/22	Misao & Expert Linda Conti	Hospice Care

January 11, 2011 – Groups I have Joined

Groucho Marx once said, “I don’t want to belong to any group that would accept me as a member.”

How about you?  What has been your exerience with groups?  Is there a favorite group that you do or did belong to?  What was special about  it?  Were you ever rejected by a group you wanted to join?  Have you ever joined a group and wished you hadn’t?

Our host, the Rev Amy, doesn’t expect you to answer all of the above questions.  Just tell us about your most memorable group experience.

PS.  Don’t be late for this meeting.  The “group experience” will start with our IceBreakers.

January 25 – What Next?

We need facilitators and topics for 2011.  Dan or Amy  will lead us at the 2nd Tuesday meetings in February through May, but we need topics for February 22, March 22, April 26, May 24, June 14 and 28, and on into the summer and fall.  Topics can be either social or informational:
Informational topics. You can do it yourself or work with Misao on finding an expert to inform us.  The August meeting on Attendent Care at Home led by Misao, and the November one on Macular Degeneration led by Joan and George are recent examples.
Social topics.  Almost anything else!  The discussion on Things I Recently Discovered About My Past led by Mona, and one I led on Bear Tales are examples from last year; most of the sessions led by Dan and Amy are in this category.. Sylvia can help you on this.
Please come prepared to suggest a topic which you are interested in, and a date when you can lead the discussion.  If we get our program filled in time, we can each take a minute or two to say  “What’s on my mind these days” – sort of like a low-key Caring and Sharing.

February 8 – Twentieth Century Presidents in my lifetime

Our MRE Dan Harper (MRE) leads us in our February meeting.  This being President’s month, he  suggests that  we each pick one of the not-too-recent Presidents and talk about him.  What effect did he have on the country?   On your life?  Did you admire him?  Why or why not?, etc.

Since it will be more fun for the group as a whole if we  hear about lots of different presidents, please come prepared with at least three ordered choices in case someone else has already talked about your first preference.

February 22 – Treasure Trove: Previous Elder Journey Meetings

The first regularly scheduled meeting of Elder Journey was held on Tuesday February 26 2002.  In the nine years since then we’ve held a hundred or so meetings on a variety of topics, both social and informational.  Of which one do you have the sharpest memory?  Was it an informational one where you learned about hearing aids or senior housing alternatives, or how to make your home safer?  Or was it a social meeting where you got to share family memories, or compare ideas on what Thanksgiving means, or favorite books or poems?

We’ll each bring a specific memory and share it to increase our collective joy in the things we shared in the past.  You can reinforce it with a handout, a note you made at the time, or a reference you saved on your computer – or you can just rely on your memory.  If it’s of one of our musical sessions, you can even sing it!

If you’d like something to jog your memories, old bulletins from as far back as October 2003 have my column on our forthcoming meetings.  If you didn’t save the paper copy, you can find all bulletins on the web at
         < http://www.uucpa.org/bulletin/bulletin_index.html>. 
Or you can go to
         < http://www.uucpa.org/elder_journey/ej_archives.html>
 for Elder Journey’s archived files of my articles from 2007 on.

P.S.  If you’re new to Elder Journey and don’t have any memories of past sessions, come to this one and acquire a whole set of them in just an hour!

March 8 – Roles

Lucy Bunch, the new UUCPA Intern Minister will lead us this week.  Her topic will be the different roles we  have played in our lives.  She writes,

Throughout our lives we have each played many roles such as child, parent, boss, trouble maker,  change agent,  joke teller, chef, artist, etc. =  What roles have you played in your life and which have been the most satisfying to you? The least? What role are you playing now?

Plan what you would like to say so that everyone present will have a fair turn to speak.

March 22 – People in Your Life

Mona Miller asks us to remember and tell us about some person who was important in your life.  It was probably someone you knew personally, but maybe not.  Sometimes a person we know only slightly  - or even a public figure you ‘ve never met.  I suppose it could even be a fictional character.  But this person was important to you.  In what way?  Why?  How would your life  have been different if  you hadn’t known this person?  At the end of the meeting we’ll all know about the person  you describe – and we’ll know a bit more about you.

April 12 – Sing Along

Carl Skold will lead us in an hour of singing our favorite songs from RISE UP SINGING.  This book  has the words to over 1200 songs ranging from hymns to hard times, from ballads to love songs, from goldem oldies to sea chanteys, from good times and revelry to hard times and blues.  If you have a copy of the book, bring it along; if you don’t, no problem -  Carl will bring copious copys and we can all share.  Got a favorite song or two (or three or four or more)?  Everyone will get a turn to choose.  Think you can’t sing?  Nonsense – we may not have great voices, but we only have to please ourselves.  Besides, Carl has led sing-alongs as an auction item for years and is a master at bringing out the best in us.

April 26 – Repeatable Jokes for Seniors

It has been well established that the physical act of laughing is very healthy, especially as we grow older. Also, we all have aches and pains, and a bit of laughter helps us forget them for a while. With this in mind, our MRE leader Dan wants us to devote this entire session to making each other laugh.  
Don’t be put off by that word, “Repeatable” – we Elders can be quite broad minded and we can tell each other jokes that we might not tell our teen-age granddaughters.  But while a quacking bird is OK, beware of what you rhyme it with.  Racist jokes are out, but since we are Elders, ageist jokes are definitely in.
“Jokes” includes all sorts of things: one-liners, puns and spoonerisms, limericks, monologs and dialogs – even shaggy-dog stories but not too long, please.  Bring along several.  We’ll go around the circle one joke per turn and keep going until we run out of time (or out of jokes, but I think Dan and I can guarantee that that won’t happen).  Most jokes will probably take under a minute, but don’t go over two unless it’s really funny and can’t be condensed.
Here’s one to get  you started:
         Three Elders riding a bus in London:
         1st Elder         Is this Wembly?
         2nd Elder         No, it’s Thursday.
         3rd Elder         So am I.  Let’s all go to a bar.
C’mon.  You can do better than that!

May 10 – A Book I Have Enjoyed and Recommend

Rev Amy will lead us, and  her instructions are simple: “Bring along a book or two that you’ve enjoyed and want to recommend to others.”  To that I’ll add only that  the “or two” will apply only if we have time after everyone  has had a turn with their first choice.

May 24 – Personal Writing

Misao Sakamoto wants to share her enthusiasm about  what she calls  “personal writing”.  What used to be done by putting words on paper, but is increasingly  apt to be typing words on an electronic keyboard.   There are probably many of us who already do this, but whether or not  you are one of them you might be interested in some of the opportunities available for starting or improving your skills.

She’ll start by telling us about her AAUW writing group and then read an example of her own writing.  Then we’ll go around the circle and see if anyone else would like to read something they have written.  If you‘d like to participate bring along something you’ve written recently and plan to read for not more than 5 minutes.   It can be anything: fiction,  non-fiction (autobiography, political opinion, essay, whatever), poetry, drama, letters – you name it.  Or if you’d rather just listen, we readers will be happy to have an audience!

June 14 – Your Spiritual Place

Rev Lucy writes: “Where in the world is your most spiritual place?    Many of us have a special place we have visited or imagined that make us feel spiritually connected and alive.  Is your most spiritual place across the sea or in your own backyard?  Come share your special place.”

June 28 – New Developments in Internet Communication

Sylvia Witcher will introduce UUCPA’s computer expert, Joe Chee.  Sylvia wrote Joe,  “We hope you will bring your words of wisdom and explanation about all, or some, of the new developments in Internet Communication. Most of us have computers but many don't keep up with such things as FaceBook, or Twitter.  Some may have used Skype but others not. Most of us wonder what these are all about. I am trying to get some questions for you ahead of time. I'm quite sure that any information that you think would be helpful or valuable for Elders would be much welcomed. We are a group of curious people.”

Joe’s gracious response was, “I'd be happy to talk with the Elder Journey group about technology Facebook, Twitter, Cloud Computing, etc.”

July 12 – You Are What You Eat

Lucy writes: “Eating and food are an important part of life and community.  Do you have a favorite memory of a meal?  What made it special? What did you eat and who did you eat it with?  We will sure make ourselves hungry sharing these stories.”

July 26 – Favorite Poems

June Bridges chose this topic, and it’s a good one.  Bring a few of your favorite poems with you to share with the group.  So that everyone gets a chance to be heard, we’ll follow some ground rules.  We’ll go around the circle and each read ONE poem.  Then, as time permits we’ll go around again (and again), reading only one poem each time.  If it’s a long poem – anything over three minutes, say – please plan to read only part of it.  If you’d like, you can say a FEW words about why you chose it.

August 9 – Family and personal rituals

Reverend Amy will be our host.  She writes: “Most families develop rituals around birthdays, holidays, bedtimes, mealtimes, vacations, or the like that become dear to them. Do you have, or have you had in the past, any family or personal rituals that are a must-do?”  Other questions we might consider are: How important are rituals to you?  Why?  How do you feel about former rituals that you no longer practice?  When does a ritual become an obsession?

August 23 – My Favorite UUCPA Auction Experience

The annual UUCPA Auction is coming up in the near future. Do you participate in the Auction? What sort of things do you like to offer – Material items? Food? Tickets to events? Host an event? Services? ???. And what do you like to bid on? Do you look for “bargains” when you bid? Or do you think of this as a fun way to contribute to the church and have something to show for it?
Is there something you’d like to buy that no one has offered yet? Sylvia Whitcher, our host, says she has several things in this category. So do I, for that matter. How about you?

September 13 – Where were you?

There are certain dates in our history which represent milestones in our national history. For example, the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01, the Kennedy assassination on 11/23/63, and the Martin Luther King assassination on 4/4/68. Dan Harper, our MRE, wants to know about your relationship with one of these crucial dates. Cast back in your memory. Where were you and what were you doing? How was your life different before and after that date?

You probably have vivid memories of more than one date, , but pick only one to talk about on the first go-round. If time permits we can give you a second chance later. And those 3 dates above are just examples. There are even a couple of happy milestones such as V-J Day on 92/245 or the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9/9/89. Or how about the first man on the moon on 7/20/69.

September 27 – My grandchild(ren)

George Martin will host this dangerous topic. Dangerous because most of us Elders could happily spend our entire meeting time talking about how wonderful our grandchildren are. So let’s set up some groundrules:

First, come prepared to talk for no more than five minutes about one specific grandchild. As usual, if we have time left after everyone has spoken we can open things up for a second grandchild.

Second, don’t just list all the reasons your grandchild in wonderful, but tell us why he or she is so special to You. Do you recognize the You of 50 years ago in her or him? The You that really was? Or the You that you wished you were? Or do you have a special “now” relationship? Does he or she regard you as a friend? Is there a sharing of ideas or dreams – perhaps more so than between parent and child? Etc.

If you don’t have an actual child’s child of your own, tell us about a special relationship you have with some other child two generations younger than you. Perhaps a grand-niece or grand-nephew? Or someone you taught in religious school? Maybe the grandchild of a friend or neighbor who never knew his real grandparents? Whatever.

October 11 – The God(s) of Your Childhood

Intern minister Lucy Bunch will host. She writes:
When you were a child what were your ideas about God? Was God the big white-bearded guy in the sky or some other formation. Were your concepts formed by your experience at church or in the larger world?
We will reflect back on our childhood ideas about the divine and share how our images may have changed with age.

October 25 – Improv Games

Susan describes her UU class in Improv Games as:
When my kids were acting in the Children’s Theatre, they would come home and tell me about the fun improv games they played. I felt sad that I was grown up and would never get to play like games like that. Well, it turns out that grown-ups can play improv games too. I’d love to give you a chance to find out how much fun they are. Improv, which is short for improvisation, has players working together to create a scene spontaneously. Improv games are an easy way to get the feel of improv. There are many improv games, some very verbal, some mostly physical. This class will provide a gentle introduction and a safe place to play. Besides being fun, improv teaches skills and an approach to life that can make for greater creativity, spontaneity, engagement, and joy.
For this Elder Journey Susan will select some of her games that will not overtax our elder bodies. I’ve attended a couple of her classes and I guarantee that we will all have fun.

November 8 – Attend Your Own Memorial Service

Our host, Rev Amy qualifies that title:
well, plan it anyway. Favorite hymns that sum up our philosophy of life, readings we keep taped to our refrigerator . . . We'll talk about how people would like to be mourned and celebrated on that day, which is another way of asking, what's important to and about us right now?

Nov 22 – Hospice Care

Misao Sakamoto writes:
I am responsible for the program this date. Linda Conti from Pathways will address EJ on Hospice Care. Many of us have heard of Hospice Care but are not too familiar with it. We have heard of people receiving hospice care when their health has deteriorated. As healthy "Elder journey" people let us hear and learn of Hospice Care while we are still "Well and Alive!." I will chair the program.---no "ice breakers" as I would like to give the speaker the full hour---with questions and answers from the members.
I remind you that our starting time is 1:30:00 pm, and Misao is a stickler for starting on time. Please plan to arrive by 1:25 (or sooner, to allow for unexpected traffic), so that you can be settled in your seat (with cell phones turned off) at 1:30. If you insist on arriving late, please enter quietly and unobtrusively so that you do not interupt the speaker or distract our attention from her.

Dec 13 — The Best Christmas Ever

Every culture seems to have a celebration about the time of the winter solstice. For many of us, including our Associate MRE Dan, that celebration is called Christmas. For our topic in December Dan writes:
What was your best Christmas ever? Come tell your stories about the best Christmas celebration you ever had. And, if you can, tell us why it was the best Christmas ever -- Was it because Santa was good to everyone? Was it the people who were there? Or was it just a magical combination of chance events?
A fascinating article in Wikipedia lists 15 different cultures that have different names and different specific dates for their winter festivals: Andean, Buddhist, Celtic, Chinese, Christian, Germanic, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim,0 Pagan and Neo-Pagan, Persian, Roman, Slavic, Secular, and Non-historical winter holidays. And most of those have more than one – the total is more than sixty.
Whatever you and your family did to recognize the solstice period, tell us about which year was the most memorable.

 

Philip Hodge, Court Jester