Marian’s talk is taken from a long letter she wrote to her family and friends on September 17, 2011, to explain the events and emotions of being stranded in Gander after 9/11. Her Virgin flight from London to Washington was diverted there, along with 37 other jumbo jets full of passengers from around the world. She will be sharing her experiences, her emotions, and the lessons she learned for the experience.

Marian, a naturalized American citizen, was born in England, and left at age 22 with her first degree in hand to begin a working life of service. It started in Kenya, and thereafter, in groups of 2 - 4 years, she worked in the US, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, the Philippines and Pakistan. Her work included teaching teenagers, students and adults, training scientists to write convincing proposals, fundraising for agricultural research, designing, writing, editing development proposals, and evaluating projects. She received two postgraduate degrees from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
After leaving full time work, Marian and her husband, Jacob moved to Washington DC to develop consultancies that took them all over the world for 12 years.
Marian and her husband are residents of Collington, a continuous care residential community in Mitchellville, Maryland.

When Michele Potter came to Asbury Methodist Village (AMV) in January of 2020 as the new Executive Director, she was already known throughout Montgomery County as the City of

Gaithersburg’s Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture. She served in that role for twenty years—leading the planning and management of the city’s multi-park locations, from mini pocket parks up to the 57-acre Bohrer Park complex. She earned awards for her leadership and innovations, managing book fairs, art shows, the aquatic center’s indoor pool activities to twin two-hundred-foot water slides at the Water Park. In addition, she then led the city’s legislative efforts. Instead of fully retiring, she accepted the challenge of becoming AMV’s new leader.
She was well prepared for her new responsibilities, and already knew much about Asbury, having served as a member of the AMV Board of Governors and the Community Advisory Committee since 2010. But what could prepare anyone for the Coronavirus19 crisis in a retirement continuum of care senior community? Perhaps, it would help to be an 18-time Ironman finisher – or maybe being a former member of Team U.S.A. for duathlon – or an ultra-marathoner (50 mile running races). These extreme tests of fitness, speed and endurance just may be the experience that has helped Michele during this “ultimate challenge”.
On this Keese School first appearance, Michele will share her experience in such demonstrations of physical and psychological fitness. And maybe we can learn how to pay attention to what our minds, bodies, and spirits expect and ask of us.

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Sed pellentesque at leo in vehicula. Mauris elementum eget libero sed cursus. Mauris tincidunt tortor at elementum scelerisque. Aenean dignissim ornare magna nec pretium. Vestibulum tristique lacus sit amet dui tincidunt faucibus. In vehicula lorem nec mi tincidunt condimentum. Vivamus eget laoreet felis.

Later in 2020, the Montgomery Parks will formally open the Josiah Henson Museum and Park at an archeological site on a portion of what once had been the Isaac Riley plantation. Who was Josiah Henson? How is his story connected to that of Uncle Tom, in Harriet Beecher’s Stowe’s novel?

Relying upon Josiah’s own dictated story, and upon her ten years of research, Jamie Kuhns will give us a fuller understanding of Josiah Henson’ life as expressed in her recent biography: Sharp Flashes of Lightning Come from Black Clouds: The Life of Josiah Henson.

Josiah was born a slave in 1789, entrusted at eighteen by his owner Isaac Riley to manage his Montgomery County plantation. He became a Christian and then a minister while still enslaved. He faced being sold “down the river” when Riley faced financial troubles, but instead risked with his wife a winter flight in1830 across the Ohio, through to upstate New York, and then to Canada—where he founded a self-reliant community for free blacks, the Dawn settlement. Free in Canada, he risked re-enslavement by venturing back into the United States. After the Civil War, he learned to read, spurred by the example of his ten-year-old son. He passed away in 1883 at the age of 93.

Jamie Ferguson Kuhns will flesh out these glimpses, add important facts, and share her experience as the Senior Historian for Montgomery County’s Parks Department. She will enrich our understanding of Josiah Henson by her research into primary sources about the times and circumstances surrounding his life.

Terry Shima will talk about his experience of being ethnically Japanese in American during WW II. He will speak about the mass internment of 110,000 ethnic Japanese, 3/4 of them US citizens. He will touch on his combat service in Europe and in the Pacific, and the impact of this military service on future generations of Japanese Americans.

A resident at Diamond for the past 15 years, Terry Shima was born in Hawaii and was drafted into the US Army in 1944. After his return to the US in 1946, Terry graduated cum laude from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and attended Georgetown University Graduate School. He served in the US Foreign Service for thirty years where he served in many Asian countries such as the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam.
At a White House ceremony, President Barack Obama awarded Terry the Presidential Citizens Medal. He also received two awards from the Government of Japan, one for supporting Japan’s efforts to build strong bridges with Japanese American. The other for his role in promoting friendship and understanding between those born in Japan and living in the US and the Nisei (Japanese American population). For the latter, he was awarded the Emperor’s Order of the Rising Sun with Gold Rays and Rosette.

David Hildebrand, a specialist in early colonial music, will present a lecture/concert on Maryland music from the colonial era. The event will include patriotic songs, ballads, marches, dance tunes, and theater songs heard in the 18th-century in Maryland and beyond, probably by important listeners such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Francis Scott Key. Based on decades of researching, arranging, recording, and performing early American music, David will speak, sing, and play upon the Baroque guitar, English guitar, English flute and spinet (harpsichord).

Dr. Hildebrand, the director of The Colonial Music Institute, received an M.A. is from George Washington University and a Ph.D. from The Catholic University of America. He is the co-author of Musical Maryland: A History of Song and Performance from the Colonial Period to the Age of Radio (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017). Since 1980, he and his wife Ginger have presented their programs throughout the country for educational institutions such as Mount Vernon, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Archives, Colonial Williamsburg, and the Styriarte Festival in Graz, Austria. They have provided soundtrack materials and served as period music consultants for several PBS broadcasts. Together, they have issued seven full-length recordings, two of which focus on early Maryland.

Emperor Constantine endorsed and promoted the Christian faith in 313 A.D. This radically altered the way the church was respected by society at large—from a fledgling movement of believers to an institutionalized organization with an official relationship to government. Seventeen hundred years later, the church is losing its exalted position as the go-to moral authority for Western culture. For the most part, the mainline church is at a loss as to its new role in this post-Christendom era and is struggling to adapt. As Christians consider new ways of being followers of Christ in the world today, opportunities abound for re-discovering what it means to follow Him authentically, corporately, and responsibly. Who knows? We may find a whole new faith on the other side!

Norm Gordon is a native of Gaithersburg. He served as an Associate Pastor at Gaithersburg Presbyterian Church from 2007 to 2015, and is currently the Pastor of Idylwood Presbyterian Church in Falls Church, VA. He has a B.A. from Davidson College in North Carolina and a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.

In February 2018, seventeen people were killed when a gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. This shooting came at a time of heightened public support for gun control that followed other mass shootings across the United States. This event encouraged Parkland student survivors to begin advocating for legislative action on gun violence, triggering many other student movements across the country. In the wake of this massacre students in our Montgomery County united and founded Montgomery County Students for Change (MoCo). The Gaithersburg Beloved Community Initiative (GBCI) brings together some of these Montgomery County youth activists and two experienced scholar researchers and policy advocates, all working to reduce gun violence.

Claire Gelillo, now a senior at Richard Montgomery High School, before Covid19, was the Co-President of MoCo. She is working to expand opportunities for students to create meaningful change on issues such as gun violence, climate change, and social inequity.

Aishlinn Kivlighn just graduated from Thomas S. Wooton High School in Rockville. She served as Co-President of MoCo. She fights for gun violence prevention, social equity, and climate reform through lobbying, demonstrating, and mobilizing her peers. She hopes to practice law to continue her advocacy for progressive policies.

Cassandra Crifasi, Ph.D. serves as associate professor of Health Policy and Management, and as Deputy Director for the Center for Gun Policy and Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research focuses broadly on public safety, gun violence and policy, attitudes and behaviors of gun owners, and underground gun markets.

Ari Davis is a policy analyst for the Coalition to Stop Violence. He did his graduate work at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where he focused on injury and violence prevention. Through his experiences working with youth affected by gun violence, he became a passionate advocate for implementing public health policies to reduce gun violence.

Robert Plumb will be speaking about his forthcoming book, The Better Angels, which describes the lives of five remarkable women: Clara Barton, Julia Ward Howe, Sarah Josepha Hale, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Harriet Tubman. Their actions during the American Civil War led them to prominence during the War and later launched them into successful public roles.

Mr. Plumb will cover highlights of those women’s contributions, their legacies, and their defining qualities such as courage, self-assurance, and persistence, which led to their accomplishments. Copies of his book will be available after the talk. Mr. Plumb is a resident of Montgomery County and a long-time member of the Historical Society’s Speakers Bureau. After a career with GE and Fannie Mae, he wrote his first book, Your Brother in Arms: A Union Soldier’s Odyssey which was presented a few years ago, at Asbury. The Better Angels will be published in March 2020 by Potomac Books, an imprint of The University of Nebraska Press. Mr. Plumb is a graduate of State University of New York at Buffalo and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, and he has sometimes attended the Yale University Writing Program. His writing has appeared in The Montgomery County Story, the Washington Post, and the Washington Post Magazine.

Magic Ray Jazz is a group of musicians who perform straight-ahead jazz, Latin jazz, jazz songs in a range of styles, and ballads. The ensemble shares a love of playing jazz and working together. It enjoys performing at locally owned establishments, farmers markets, charities, and group homes. They have played in places like Takoma Station Tavern, New Deal Cafe, Kaldi's Social Club, Kora, Roscoe's Pizzeria, Takoma Park Art Hop, the AARP Residents Rights Luncheons, the Community Law Center, S.O.M.E., the Cosmos Club, the Residences at Thomas Circle, and Bedford Court.

Raymond Y (Magic Ray) Chu the organizer of the group, plays upright string bass. He has studied with Boots Maleson and Joshua Bayer and has been active in initiating many jazz jams in the area. In his ensemble are guitarist Shawn Terrell, flutist, and vocalist Steve Marcus. Steve has studied with Chris Vadala, Jeff Antoniuk, Ali Ryerson, Ramón Tasat, and Lena Seikaly. In addition to performing jazz Steve sings in a Jewish community choir and is a lay Jewish service leader.

The trio started playing in earnest at the Bloomingdale Farmer's Market in 2011. In recent years, the group has been joined by drummer Wil Cameron. Outside of being jazz players, the group consists of a statistician at the American Institute of Physics, a social worker at the Department of Health and Human Services, a Professor of Electrical, Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland, and a retired FBI agent.

In this era of the “Me Too” movement, many men (and women) are fearful of inadvertently overstepping social bounds or projecting the wrong impression. This might be especially true of older people who have a lifetime of behavior expectations behind them. How should we behave? What do we need to recognize and change? What are the cues? Even older women are subject to inappropriate or uncomfortable touching and language, such as a hand on the leg or a lingering hug. How should women respond? This lecture will help clarify the boundaries for both men and women.

Janis Ramey has been teaching Osher at CMU classes for several years. She is a retired independent technical writer who helped scientists and engineers write about their work. She also taught technical writing to technical people in their workplaces and at the University of Pittsburgh and Chatham University. She has both master and bachelor degrees from Carnegie Mellon University.

Stories provide medicine for the soul. When we tell or listen to a story, a spark ignites in us. Our hearts open because we are touched to know that we are all connected through the universality of human experiences. Based om her one-woman play, A Lesbian Belle Tells…, Elizabeth McCain will talk about her experiences of growing up in Mississippi, coming out in DC, experiencing family estrangement, and finding love and belonging.

Elizabeth McCain is a professional storyteller, playwright, counselor, and shamanic Interfaith Minister in Takoma Park, MD, where she lives with her spouse, Marie and their two dogs. She supports women, LGBTQ folks, and elders who share and reframe their personal stories of loss, betrayal, and spirituality. She offers spiritual counseling to the dying and their families and friends.

Just this year, Elizabeth has published her memoir, A Lesbian Belle Tells…Outrageous Southern Stories on Family, Loss, and Love.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam ut urna dui. Praesent consequat semper justo ut placerat. Integer vehicula tortor sed metus viverra faucibus. Duis gravida non sem in ornare. In at accumsan ipsum. Aenean dictum risus leo, ac auctor sapien venenatis eu. Vestibulum felis elit, laoreet vel elit et, tempor porta turpis. Ut quis pharetra leo. Suspendisse in commodo nisl. Maecenas lacus neque, venenatis sit amet vulputate eget, pretium ut nibh. Duis pharetra suscipit eros ut tincidunt. Quisque at dictum justo. Morbi pretium facilisis dictum. Fusce iaculis, justo finibus auctor semper, nulla massa posuere tortor, sit amet condimentum metus mauris eu diam. Nulla at augue nec ante tempor sagittis. Nullam consequat ligula congue arcu aliquet, nec convallis eros iaculis.

Sed pellentesque at leo in vehicula. Mauris elementum eget libero sed cursus. Mauris tincidunt tortor at elementum scelerisque. Aenean dignissim ornare magna nec pretium. Vestibulum tristique lacus sit amet dui tincidunt faucibus. In vehicula lorem nec mi tincidunt condimentum. Vivamus eget laoreet felis.

The late 1960’s and early 1970’s were dreadful to our country and especially for our young people. Unrelenting riots during and after the Democratic Convention in Chicago, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr, and Bobby Kennedy, student uprising, racial strife, and revolt against the Vietnam War were capped off by the killing of four students at Kent State University by ill-prepared national guardsmen.

Kent State University, a rapidly growing regional university during the 1960’s, had stellar presidential leadership supportive of student rights, free speech, and academic freedom. Despite this advantage, dissent raged just below the surface, including multiple student demonstrations. While uprisings occurred on innumerable campuses, none reached the fever pitch of the week of May 1 to 4 at Kent State, which culminated in 13 seconds of random shooting at high noon, May 4, 1970, killing four and wounding nine students.

Arch Phillips, a Villa resident here at Asbury, is Professor Emeritus of the Graduate School of Education at Kent State University. He was a member of the faculty senate during those troubled times. With colleagues, he walked the campus on those warm nights of May 1 and 2 to connect with students to try to calm troubled waters.

Arch was scheduled to share his experience at a Keese evening this last May 4 on the anniversary date of the shooting. Covid19 interrupted that planned event. We could not gather in a large number. Keese School did arrange, with Arch’s help, the AVTV showing on that fiftieth anniversary of the PBS documentary: The Day the Sixties Died. Arch will share his memories, his analysis, and his retrospective interpretation of these tragic four days.

After 108 years, the sinking of the “unsinkable” RMS Titanic, the “greatest ship ever built,” continues to interest millions of people around the globe, even though there are no longer any survivors or others with living memory of that epic disaster. What we have now—and what continues to fuel our imagination—are a variety of myths, legends, “fake news” facts, and state-of-the-art technologies that challenge us to sort through this bewildering thicket of information. This presentation will share some little-known facts and pull the curtain back on some of the most pervasive myths that still populate our collective imagination.

Lynne Rychlec, an Asbury Villa resident, is a member of the Titanic Historical Society, with a six decade-long interest in sorting out fact from fiction when it comes to the world’s most memorable shipwreck. Whether it involved reading, starting at age twelve, all 1100 pages of the 1912 Congressional Inquiry Report of the disaster, or following contemporary discoveries that have upended cherished beliefs about how and why the great ship sank. Lynne has sustained her interest in the Titanic by visiting the Belfast shipyard where the Titanic was built and by devouring libraries of literature—from the fantastical and speculative to myth-busting science based on her exhaustive research, careful analysis, and surprising discovery.

From causing mass extinctions to revealing clues about the origin of the solar system, meteorites have been important throughout our planet’s history and will continue to be so. We are currently experiencing a golden age of meteorite science, with many exciting recent advances. Information will be presented on the identification of various meteorite types including the difference between a meteorite and a meteorwrong. Other subjects that will be discussed are the development of Meteor Crater, the end of the dinosaurs, and the great Siberian fall of 2013.

Space rock enthusiast Doug Ross has had a lifelong interest in space science, and the great outdoors, combined into a passionate hobby of hunting meteorites. He has found over 100 meteorites including two unique finds published in the Meteoritical Bulletin. He volunteers in the meteorite division at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

When he is not preoccupied with space rocks, Doug works as a freelance professional musician who has performed at Asbury.

The United States (US) and Soviet Union (USSR), former WWII allies, found themselves at the center of a global Cold War throughout most of the latter part of the 20th Century. Both nations didn’t hesitate to deploy sophisticated signals intelligence collection techniques in order to gain any advantage over the adversary.

In “Behind the Eagle’s Beak” Mark Nixon, staff historian at the Center for Cryptologic History (CCH) at the National Security Agency, recalls the US pursuit of the source of unexplained signals emanating from a US secure facility in Moscow. Mr. Nixon tells the story of the Great Seal Bug based on the 1st person recollection of the man credited with the clever deception that lead to its shocking discovery in September 1952.

Retired from the National Security Agency (NSA) after a 40-year career, Mr. Nixon lectures on select cryptologic history topics for the CCH. His most recent project is a history of the 1955 Joseph Petersen spy case. Mostly forgotten today, Mr. Petersen was an expert US cryptanalyst for many years. On October 1, 1954 he was dismissed from NSA and days later arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His admission of ongoing illegal activities struck at the heart of American Cold War cryptologic supremacy.

Pianist Ellen Tenenbaum will play works by Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Scott Joplin. She will give brief introductions to each piece, providing context about the composers and their music.

Ms. Tenenbaum serves on the music faculty at Princeton University. She studied under Francine Kay, a well-known New York pianist. She has given concerts in Silver Spring under the auspices of the Washington Piano Society, and she also performs in churches, libraries, senior living settings, and community centers in New Jersey and New York City. She and her husband live in Princeton, New Jersey.

For almost a year Jay Hatch was an Instructor at the Outward Bound Mountain School (OBMS) on the side of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The school provides exposure and training to East African youth which challenges their physical, mental and social skills while honing an appreciation and understanding of nature, and of what is entailed as a team member, its leader or as a follower. The Outward Bound three-week courses are based on small group experience carried out amidst natural challenges, including a few nights and days solo, in this case on the plains of Kenya and the mountain's slope in Tanzania.

Jay Hatch is a ten year resident of the Villas who served three years in the Peace Corps in Tanzania. The OBMS work came when he wrangled an appointment to OBMS as the Tanzanian representative Instructor after two years as a primary school teacher. It led to his reaching the top of Mt Kilimanjaro six times, and helped to cement his interest the out-of-doors and alternative forms of education.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam ut urna dui. Praesent consequat semper justo ut placerat. Integer vehicula tortor sed metus viverra faucibus. Duis gravida non sem in ornare. In at accumsan ipsum. Aenean dictum risus leo, ac auctor sapien venenatis eu. Vestibulum felis elit, laoreet vel elit et, tempor porta turpis. Ut quis pharetra leo. Suspendisse in commodo nisl. Maecenas lacus neque, venenatis sit amet vulputate eget, pretium ut nibh. Duis pharetra suscipit eros ut tincidunt. Quisque at dictum justo. Morbi pretium facilisis dictum. Fusce iaculis, justo finibus auctor semper, nulla massa posuere tortor, sit amet condimentum metus mauris eu diam. Nulla at augue nec ante tempor sagittis. Nullam consequat ligula congue arcu aliquet, nec convallis eros iaculis.

Sed pellentesque at leo in vehicula. Mauris elementum eget libero sed cursus. Mauris tincidunt tortor at elementum scelerisque. Aenean dignissim ornare magna nec pretium. Vestibulum tristique lacus sit amet dui tincidunt faucibus. In vehicula lorem nec mi tincidunt condimentum. Vivamus eget laoreet felis.

Between July 1st and 3rd, 1863, Maryland witnessed the single most costly battle of the American Civil War in terms of 51,000 casualties (killed wounded and missing) and ranks up there as one of the major turning points of the war. The Gettysburg Battlefield has been very well preserved and attracts 1.2 million visitors every year.

Most of us are aware of the important role the battlefield plays in teaching American History. In its capacity as a National Military Park, it provides a leadership laboratory to educate future generations of military personnel and first responders. The battle has been used to draw out leadership points for discussion. The challenges that leaders faced at Gettysburg are in many cases like to our challenges in the 21st Century.

Rob Abbott, is originally from Rockville, MD and attended The Citadel in Charleston, SC. He served on active duty for 25 years in the Marine Corps and retired in 2008 at the rank of Colonel. He is a Federally Licensed Battlefield Guide at GNMP. Rob will relate how the Park continues to educate and inspire future leaders of America.

Take a group of thirty women, different ages, different experiences, different careers, different interests-ex­cept that each one loves to sing. Bring them together with a dedicated direc1or and a willingness to come to­gether at least weekly. To sing, yes, to have fun, certainly.

Chartered in 1951, the Heart of Maryland Chorus is part of the Atlantic Bay-Mountain Region of Sweet Adelines International. They describe their mission to be "a performing chorus dedicated to achieving a level of musical quality that makes us proud in an environment that fosters camaraderie, trust, and com­munication." Their repertoire ranges from ballads to lively, choreographed pop times.

Karen Collins, a certified barbershop music director, has been leading the chorus since 2007. They return to the Keese School at Asbury promising "We'll sing. We'll dance. We'll make you smile:' They keep their promises.

In our world of tawdry politicized journalism, let us spend an hour watching Shakespeare take his journalistic source and turn it into poetry. Shakespeare did not see or know much that most of us, at our advanced ages, have not seen or learned. But he could make the magic happen in words, maybe better than any other writer in English. Cleopatra comes down the river Cydnus (Antony and Cleopatra) to meet Marc Antony for the first time. Any journalistic hack could cover it; several did. But Shakespeare blew it out of the newspapers and into our deepest dreams and fantasies. And he put this astounding speech in the mouth of a tough cynical Roman soldier. We have Shakespeare’s source; we have Shakespeare’s version, his transformation. Let us watch the verbal magician at work.

Sandy Mack, who lives in Diamond, taught at Harvard and the University of Maryland. At Maryland, he taught the introduction to Shakespeare course, which few of his colleagues wanted, because he loved watching young adults discover the other side of their brains...their hearts...their lives. He continues to work with high school students and teachers at the Folger Shakespeare Library in D.C. He claims that he still holds the high school mile record in his hometown of New Haven, CT.

If you are interested in a) in a particular Shakespeare play, and b) if you might seriously consider committing to say, five session exploration of that play (one session per act) in some future Keese offering, please email him at, mmack@umd.edu.

The Asbury play readers enter their fifth year with the Keese School. The performers are all residents of Asbury who act in comic skits and scenes from plays, “script in hand,” which means no memorization required. For those interested in joining the readers: if social distancing is no longer required, auditions will be held in the Community Room in Rosborough on September 16 from 2:00-4:00. If by that time. social distancing is still required, forms will be available up at the concierge’s desk.

For those who merely want to be spectators, register as usual, but watch for notices!

Asbury residents, Nancy Hirsche and Rollie Smith are co-directors of the Play Readers theater. Nancy began her career as a mezzo soprano singing with opera companies in eastern New York state and western Massachusetts. Later, she acted in commercials and soaps in New York City. In recent years, she has acted in reader theater groups in Sarasota and the Theatre Hopkins in Baltimore. Five years ago, Nancy came to Asbury and introduced Readers Theater. In 2018, she sang and acted in Phyllis Zeno’s musical “Back to the Future.” Rollie Smith acted in plays in high school and college and after that, taught speech, helped coach dramas, and readers theater. At Asbury he participated in the first performance of the Asbury Play Readers and played the roles of the frog king and doctor in Phyllis Zeno’s “It Takes a Village”. Last year he had a starring role in the play “Back to the Future.”

In the last fifty years, there has been a revolution in the biomedical sciences and in their application to the management of stress and promotion of wellness. This good news stems from the development of mind-body medicine.

In this workshop basic information will be provided about mind-body medicine and about the associated mind-body therapies that are most conducive to self-care. There will be opportunities to practice some of those therapies.

The focus will be on decreasing chronic stress and strengthening our innate healing mechanisms (“remembered wellness”) by eliciting the Relaxation Response, redirecting our attention, and reframing our thoughts and feelings. Relaxing, redirecting and reframing can help alleviate a host of health problems exacerbated by stress. These include cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal complaints, headaches, insomnia, pain, anxiety, and depression.

Mind-body techniques for self-care will be considered that can be used daily to manage stress and enhance wellness. These will include focused breathing, guided imagery, hypnosis, and energetic therapies (acupressure and Healing Touch); discussing the therapeutic use of music is an example. Participants will take away a toolbox of techniques that gives more control over one’s wellbeing.

Virginia Thorndike, an Asbury resident, began her professional life as a professor of French language, literature, and culture at Wellesley College. In 1989, she and her husband Irving Spitzberg, launched a business to evaluate overseas educational credentials and foreign nationals ’work experience for those seeking professional visas to enter the US. Since 2007, she has been a biofield therapist with certification in Healing Touch. She is also a part-time private practice in Healing Touch, the therapeutic use of sound, and wellness education. Her guided meditation videos are available on AVTV and by request (vvthorn@gmail.com).

Maximum enrollment: 10
Participants should plan to attend all sessions

Registration: $2, Materials: $20.00

Because the presidential campaign of 2020 will be a unique historical event, the course will follow in detail the ongoing campaign while providing historical context for understanding it.

To inaugurate the series, William Brown, will speak on Woodrow Wilson’s 1916 successful reelection campaign, followed immediately by US entry into World War I and by the devastating “Spanish flu” Epidemic.

The next three sessions will follow the current reporting on the Biden and Trump campaigns and policy debates. With the help of discussants Paul Carton, Ph.D., we will explore the strategies and mechanics of campaigns and the role of political polling in this Fall’s campaign. We will also explore the work of Theodore White, the most outstanding writer about presidential campaign.

Reading: Excerpts of Jim Doyle’s book Not Above the Law about Nixon and Watergate to understand how campaigns can go rogue.

The last class will be a postmortem. There will be ample tissues and confetti, so all will be able to express their emotions.

Readings: Theodore White the most outstanding writer about presidential campaigns, excerpts of the Kennedy-Nixon campaign (The Making of The President 1960) and the disastrous Humphrey-Nixon campaign (The Making of The President 1968).

Irving Spitzberg, an Asbury resident, is a former professor and Dean at Brown University, the Claremont Colleges, and SUNY/Buffalo. He was the CEO (General Secretary) of the American Association of University Professors and the founder of the Council for Liberal Learning in Washington, DC. Irving who studied, taught, and wrote about leadership for thirty years, focused on leadership in politics, higher education, and civic life. He participated in a number of state and national campaigns, including the 1972 McGovern campaign as a European representative and runner. Bill Brown, Ph.D., our resident historian, is a former history teacher. He most recently gave a Keese School lecture on World War 1 and served as a discussant in the AVTV-produced program “Presidents and Plagues.” Paul Carton was one of Ted Kennedy’s pollsters in Boston had gone to a distinguished career using expert polling to provide policy advice. Jim Doyle, an Asbury resident, was Bureau Chief of the Boston Globe, Deputy Washington Bureau Chief at Newsweek, and Executive Editor of Military Times. He was the Special Assistant for Public Affairs of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force during the investigation of Richard Nixon.

Participants will receive from Irving, via e-mail, regular commentaries and reporting from the national press.

Maximum enrollment: 50; Registration: $2; Materials: $5

For more information, send questions and late registrations to Irving Spitzberg at irvingspitzberg1@gmail.com.

Some of the most brilliant plays of the Greek Golden Age of tragedy like such classics as Aeschylus, the Oresteia, Sophocles, the Oedipus and the Medea and Bacchae will be read and discussed. There will be opportunities to watch some modern plays, such as the stunning Japanese version of Igor Stravinsky’s opera oratorio Oedipus Rex and Paolo Pasolini’s film Medea.

Topics covered include: what makes a play a tragedy? (Hint: it does always have to have a sad ending). When and where did tragedy arise in the Greek literature? Why did it seem to love its creativity after the death of Euripides? What was tragedy’s relationship to Greek religion, to the god Dionysus, to sacrifice, to pollution, and to purification? What influence did Greek democracy, the Sophists and the Enlightenment of the 5th Century B.C. have on the plays? Why did Plato ban such plays from his ideal state? What was the “special kind of pleasure” that Aristotle said we get from tragedy?

Winston Davis earned his MA in Greek literature from Columbia University and his Ph.D. in the History of Religions from the University of Chicago. He taught at Stanford University, Kwansei Gakuin Daigaku (Nishinomiya, Japan), Southwestern University, Princeton University, and Berlin Free University in Germany, before retiring from Washington and Lee University. He and his wife Linda have lived at Asbury since 2016. Winston has previously led Keese School courses on Greek history, Stoicism and Buddhism.

Required textbook: The Greek Plays, eds. Mary Lefkowitz and James Roman (N.Y: Modern Library, 2017), ISBN 9780812983098). Check for used copies on Amazon.

Have you been thinking of writing your memoirs? Everyone has a story worth telling, so why not start now? Bring your photos, documents, and anecdotes to share with your children, grandchildren, and future generations. You’ll be more than a leaf on the genealogical tree. To begin with, you need motivation. Join some of your neighbors who enjoy writing their memoirs. Listen to the essays they prepare each month for a given topic, and before long, you too will begin to recall, describe, and preserve memories of the road only you have traveled. Several of our members have published their volumes, and others are ready to do so. What greater gift can you offer your family, friends, and yourself?

Murray Schulman, an Asbury resident and past dean of the Keese School, had a long career as a scientist grants administrator, coordinating research and development programs in the Department of Energy’s Office of Health and Environmental Research.

The Great Decisions Discussion Groups are sponsored by the Foreign Policy Association. The groups discuss current issues in international relations and foreign affairs.

Great Decisions will enter its eighth year at Asbury with four topics in the fall. Each session will include a reading from the syllabus, a DVD presentation, a guest speaker and a group discussion of the topic.

The topics for the fall semester will be:

• India and Pakistan
  
• Red Sea Security
• Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking
  
• U.S. Relations with the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras)

Patsy Brill, an Asbury resident, has extensive experience with the Great Decisions program. From 1990’s–2015, she was a Planning Commissioner for the City of Newark; board member of the Newark Senior Center; instructor of adult education for three nonprofit programs; and President of the League of Women Voters in Newark, DE. She was Care Coordinator for two hospitals. She has degrees in International Relations and Nursing. Registration $1.00; syllabus with related reading material $35 (includes shipping and materials covering both Spring and Fall semesters)