Elder Journey Schedule

Second and Fourth Tuesdays
2:00 – 3:00, Fireside Room

Date	Facilitator	Topic
5/13	Rev. Eva	Favorite Bible Story
5/27	Misao Sakamoto with Barbara Gordon, Guest Speaker	Farewell to Falls
6/10	Rev. Eva	TBA
6/24	TBA	TBA
7/8	Rev Kurt	Turning Significant Ages
7/22	TBA	TBA
8/12	Rev Amy	TBA
8/26	TBA	TBA

All meetings begin at 2:00 PM and run for an hour. Meetings are held in the Fireside Room unless otherwise specified. All “elder” members and friends of the UU community are welcome to attend – and you can make your own definition of “elder”.
We meet twice a month. One of our ministers usually leads us for one of the sessions and various members of our group take over for the other. As you can see, we need topics and leaders for most of the coming year!. We welcome your ideas for topics -- particularly if you’ll volunteer to lead the meeting!

NEXT MEETING

May 13 My Favorite Bible Story

You can’t live in today’s US culture without knowing some of the stories in the Bible. Most of us probably first heard them as children. Pick one and think about it. Either testament will be OK. Adam and Eve or Baby Jesus and the three wise men are equally acceptable. When did you first hear the story? What did you think of it then? Did you believe it to be literally true? As an allegory? Or as complete fiction?

How did it stack up against other stories of your childhood? Did Eve’s temptor catch your interest more than Kipling’s bi-colored python rock snake? How about Jonah’s encounter with the whale against Alice’s adventures in wonderland? Would Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eyore, etc. have fit in aboard Noah’s Ark?

I had very little “Bible Straight” in my childhood. My chief sources were the camp song, “Young folks, Old folks, everybody come” where I learned “Shadrack, Misach, and Abednego Displeased the king so he said they had to go. He put them in the furnace for to burn them all to chaff, But they wore asbestos underwear and gave the king the laugh.” This was augmented by Sportin’ Life in Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess”: “Methuslah lived 900 year. Methuslah lived 900 year. But who calls that livin’ When no gal will give in To no man what’s 900 year.”

- - I must confess that most of this column is my idea. All that Reverend Eva actually said to me Sunday morning was “My next topic for Elder Journey will be ‘What is your favorite Bible Story, and why do you remember it?”. So come to Elder Journey on Tuesday May 13 and see what really happens. Maybe we’ll all be surprised!

p.s. Come promptly at 2 pm so you don’t miss our icebreakers. Instead of the usual one-liners, we’re going to sing a few of the many verses to “Young folks, Old folks”. Please bring your guitar, Rev Eva.

May 27 Farewell to Falls

is the title of a Stanford Hospital program of interest to Elders. Barbara Gordon is connected with that program and will tell us something about it. Then Misao Sakamoto will lead us in a discussion of our individual falling proclivities. Tell us about a recent fall. Was it fun? Want to do it again?

Of course not! But what are you doing differently now so that you won’t do it again? Maybe your experience will help me – and vice versa. Join us as we try to make FALL only a season – not a disaster. As always, you will be welcome at this informational session whether or not you are one of our “regular” Elders.

Warning! Be there at 2 pm sharp! Misao believes in starting on time – not one second later. In fact, why not come ten minutes early and have time to socialize a bit before we start?

FUTURE MEETINGS

Taking care of one’s self as a caregiver

We don’t have a date yet, but sometime this summer we hope to have a woman from Avenidas who has particular expertise in elder abuse. She will talk about knowing when taking care of one's children/other people starts to cross the line into not taking good enough care of oneself. Watch this space for updates.

July 8 Turning Significant Ages

Rev. Kurt turns 65 that week. He will lead us in a discussion about, “what is wisdom, anyway, and what psychological/spiritual/ethical shifts are possible in advanced age.”

Philip Hodge, Court Jester

Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto