OLLI SFSU Newsletter
November 2005
Welcome
The monthly newsletter is a vital source for OLLI news and information as well as a glimpse inside our growing community of members, faculty, and related activities. Send us your suggestions to robertm@sfsu.edu. If you would like to submit something for the December/January newsletter, our deadline is December 12.
In this Issue...
News from OLLI
The new fall session begins Monday, October 24, with a new slate of courses:
- Building Resilience, Optimism, & Mindfulness with Lauren Vanett and Riley Miller
- Digital Output with Marcia Lieberman
- Global Lens: the historical international documentary with Michael Fox
- Interior Design Trade Sources with Ken Fuhrman
- Invest Like a Pro with Sheila Cunningham
- Maintaining Mobility with Penny Sablove
- Memoir Writing II with David Weir
- Nation-Building: Asia & Africa with Gloria Neumeier
- Radical Theater Workshop with Dan Chumley
- Sense & Sensibility: A Writers Retreat with Laura Deutsch
- Writing & Blogging with Stephen Vincent
Please note that: A second session of Invest Like a Pro with Sheila Cunningham, Mondays, 6:00pm-8:00pm, has just been added to the schedule and will fill up quickly.
Also Radical Theater Workshop with Dan Chumley has a date change from December 2 to December 9 because of his late return from China.
Full course descriptions are on the website.
Faculty Spotlight
OLLI members are curious, aware, and proactive in their approach to life and health. They are fortunate to have access to some of the most illustrious faculty in the United States to guide and enrich their search for the best way of life they can attain. We have three faculty spotlights this month with faculty who will be teaching in the second Fall session: Stephen Vincent teaches "Writing & Blogging" on Fridays at the Downtown Center and the team of Erik Peper & Martin Buchbender will be teaching "Blending East & West Healing Strategies" on Wednesdays on campus.
Stephen Vincent
Stephen Vincent teaches a class at OLLI entitled, "Walking & Writing," whose objective is "to enrich the experience and local knowledge of walking in the City." Members communicate through their written impressions, (or drawings and photographs) their responses to what they experience on these short urban tours.
OLLI: Here you are teaching a course in "creative strolling," is there anything in your educational background or previous work experience that has pointed you toward this?
Stephen: What got me into this? For the last twenty-five years, I have been a persistent walker—both urban, rural, and sometimes mountain. I am a poet and it is an old tradition amongst us—Wordsworth, Whitman, Thoreau—to name just a few. Walking either alone or with friends is a wonderfully physical and sensual way to pay attention to what is here, free the imagination, as well as to reflect and meditate on any number of things going on in one's life—children, friends, the passing of elders, as well as the unexpected deaths. Much of my writing has first taken foot in my walks. Currently, on my blog, for example, I have photographs and responses to various sites near my home in the Dolores Park and Mission neighborhoods. If I did not walk, I think I would feel like a beached oyster!
OLLI: When and how did the concept for this course occur to you?
Stephen: The neighborhood of the SFSU Downtown Center was a new location to explore for me. I have taught a few "Walking & Writing" workshops, as well as a great number of Creative Writing workshops for groups that range from small children to adults. I thought we could apply some of what I learned to the local neighborhood. That is, looking closely at the architecture, listening to voices on the street, paying attention to the signage—to pretend in a sense that the City was our model, perhaps similar to the way art students work with a model in a life drawing class. We would just have a much more diverse and complicated "model." People brought their note books and sketchpads and we wandered looking and listening closely to whatever seemed important on the radar.
I had no fixed idea as to what would happen. Getting lost in whatever may happen was part of the course concept. What greater thing to have happen than get surprised by the unexpected? What I did not know was that many members of our class had worked much of their professional lives "downtown" and the delightful kinds of histories with which they could respond to our walking excursions.
In effect, intentionally or not, I wanted us to participate in reclaiming the downtown with our own experiences, visions and stories. So much of what we hear, or what is written is often claimed by the corporate culture that resides within the buildings. The owners, one suspects, are not too interested in their employees exercising their imaginations beyond the obligations of the job. What we began to find was the downtown is absolutely robust in what one can see—the sublime and various nature of the many generations of architecture—constantly changing in the light—and the many changes in tone and character of the people, the sounds and images one finds on the street. Walking provides the opportunity to also claim and experience the space—instead of hills—we find stairways, instead of rivers and forest, we find waterfalls and gardens.
The downtown—all these variations, historical and contemporary—become a "living museum."
I think all of us ended up surprised and mesmerized. Indeed – unlike approaching the area as a building in which to go to work, or a store to buy something – everyone seemed to be made happy by the sensual experience enjoying and writing about the space.
OLLI: Of the activities which teaching this course entails, what do you like best? or least? and why? Has teaching this course provided you with new insights or useful knowledge? If so, what...?
Stephen: This is the first time—in a long while—that I have worked with people most of whom were close to my age or older. Different than working with bright young people, I found it a delight to be among people on an equal footing with so much experience and wisdom to bring to the table. I was often sweetly humbled—or, let us say, I found myself listening to and appreciating the diverse histories that people brought into looking at a site and remembering over time their own experiences within or outside a particular building, or characters, now long gone on a certain street. How would I have ever known that boys from Catholic high schools use to have snake races on St. Patrick's day on the patio in front of the Crown Zellerbach building at Bush and Market Streets.
I do look forward to the opportunity to do this course again—perhaps with new variations. "Writing in Museums", "Writing in Golden Gate Park"—wherever. Different kinds of sites will bring new stories, new personal insights, and the collective pleasure of roaming with each other. I like that.
OLLI: I'm sure we will too.
Erik Peper & Martin Buchbender
Erik Peper, Ph.D., and Martin Buchbender together impart self-healing strategies from Western approaches and traditional Chinese medicine in their course, Blending East & West Healing Strategies.
Dr. Erik Peper
ERIK PEPER, Ph.D. was born in The Netherlands. His family emigrated to the USA when he was twelve. Erik is an international authority on biofeedback and self-regulation. He is Professor and Co-Director of the Institute for Holistic Health Studies / Department of Health Education at San Francisco State University. He is President of the Biofeedback Foundation of Europe, and past President of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. He holds Senior Fellow (Biofeedback) certification from the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America He was the behavioral scientist (sport psychologist) for the United States Rhythmic Gymnastic team. He received the 2004 California Governor's Safety Award for his work on Healthy Computing and is an author of numerous scientific articles and books. His research interests focus on psychophysiology of healing, voluntary self-regulation, holistic health, healthy computing, respiratory psychophysiology, and optimizing health with biofeedback.
Martin Buchbender
MARTIN BUCHBENDER came to the States in 1983 while he was studying Agriculture at the University in Bonn, Germany. During his first visit in San Francisco he became exposed to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). At that time, Germany had no college of TCM, so Martin stayed in San Francisco to study TCM. Martin graduated from the San Francisco College of Acupuncture in 1991 and moved to Minneapolis where he performed acupuncture services with a company whose subsequent purchaser provided a unique opportunity to run and operate an alternative medical department in a major American hospital. So Martin co-founded the Alternative Medical Department at Minneapolis General Hospital.
OLLI: How did your collaboration begin?
Martin: In 1997, shortly after I returned to San Francisco, I had the great privilege to meet with Dr. Eric Peper whose involvement in Holistic Medicine is nationally known. To my delight, he recognized my experience as an instructor of TCM and invited me to become a lecturer at the Holistic Health Department at San Francisco State University. Over the years, we have collaborated many times on various projects, thereby blending Western alternative medical approaches with ancient Asian healing methods.
OLLI: What drew you to explore body/mind healing techniques?
Erik: As I look back, emigrating to a new country offered me a cross-cultural perspective as well as one of the factors that sharpened my interest in mind-body connections. Not knowing the language sharpened my awareness of non-verbal communication and how the body communicates. While the exposure to another culture showed to what extent our "truth" is culturally determined. This background provided the basis to explore to what is possible in self-regulation. This has translated in my teaching and research in how to stay healthy and optimize health and wellness. I am interested in an educational approach to health; namely, how can we actively participate in our self-healing process given the awareness that health is not totally in our control.
Martin: When I was growing up a visit to the MD's office was rushed and lasted only a few short minutes. On the way out the door, a prescription was handed to me for drug treatment. I was raised in Germany, a highly technically advanced society, which retains many natural healing methods. Thousands of towns in Germany are known for their holistic healing institutions. The use of Homeopathy is widely practiced among MDs and natural pharmacies are found everywhere. My mother knew many cures for common ailments, and she applied them with great care, just like her mother had done.
When I discovered TCM, I was immediately fascinated. Here the doctor takes a real interest in me and my life and caringly tried to restore balance to my system. This holistic approach was very attractive to me. The doctor establishes a working relationship, taking the position of a catalyst and leaving the client empowered and in a position to heal him/herself. This gentle partnership point-of-view is much more interesting to me than the aggressive doctor-knows-everything approach of the typical Western MD.
OLLI: What was the most surprising thing about America to you upon your arrival?
Erik: I was very surprised by the split between "science" and non-science (such as energetic perspectives, etc.).
Martin: Everything was so big. The supermarkets were unbelievable—and the choices overwhelming—orange cheese, green cookies—things I had never seen before. On the other hand, I was completely astounded by the natural beauty of this great land and the friendliness of its inhabitants. Of all the places that I have visited, California is my favorite and I am proud to call it my home.
OLLI: Do you think that more people are taking preventative health measures and embracing alternative health care techniques?
Erik: There has been a significant increase in utilization and awareness of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). This is a radical change from when I started to teach in 1976. At that time many students doubted that CAM/holistic health had value. Now it is almost the inverse: I sometimes must justify the usefulness of Western medicine.
OLLI: What do you hope will happen next?
Erik: I hope that SFSU will support the creation of a type of Holistic Health major. That the educational system will change so that all children learn the four Rs (reading, writing, arithmetic, and regeneration) and that the corporate structure will change so that it promotes health instead of illness (fatty fast foods, alcohol, smoking, etc.).
Martin: I hope that TCM and other forms of natural health will make further inroads into the American society. TCM is a powerful method which allows the individual to realize his or her inner nature while emphasizing balance.
Member Spotlight
Consul Bernardo Mendez
This month's spotlight shines on OLLI member Bernardo Mendez. Mr. Mendez is Consul for Trade and Business Promotion, stationed here in San Francisco at the Consulate General of Mexico. Here are some of his thoughts on his involvement with OLLI:
"I learned of the OLLI program through a course on US Foreign Policy and Government that I recently took a at CEL-SFSU. It was tailored especially for the San Francisco Consular Corps. In the process I learned about OLLI and readily embraced the idea of reaching out and offering a wide variety of courses to 50-years-plus people like me."
"The main interest that prompted me to enroll in that first class was this. As a Mexican diplomat I thought the class, "Global Lens: International Documentary of Current Events," with Professor Michael Fox was a great idea for discussing—through documentary film—some contemporary events like Gypsy traditions in Italy and the reconciliation in Australia of indigenous people with people of European origin. In these two examples we can see that a regional or local issue or problem is really universal. "
"The second interesting course is The Writers Circle, coordinated by OLLI Director Susan Hoffman. Most students in this group, I would say, are really good writers—or even professionally skilled writers. Susan does a wonderful job providing advice and regulating participation. My primary interest is to become acquainted with and interact with the people of San Francisco. My participation at OLLI has provided access to these wonderful people, who are eager to learn and to share their knowledge and world views."
"What satisfactions have I received from attending classes? All of us have work routines and sometimes we get caught in a "vicious circle" of job-related issues. OLLI is a breath of fresh air to San Franciscans and the world. If you truly want to break the monotony and eschew predictable thinking, these classes provide an answer. I am enjoying meeting new people, people with creative minds and people willing to share their ideas with you. I say: Join OLLI, come to SFSU and meet mature adults with young and innovative minds: this is the definition of OLLI."
OLLI Community
New Brown bag lunch: two hour discussion group over lunch on world affairs. Starting November 15th, OLLI will hold a free discussion group for those in world affairs classes or have interest in these topics. Bring a lunch. The meeting is free. A short presentation will start the discussion, and after we will all join in.
SFSU Downtown Center
November 15
11:30am-1:30pm
E-mail for more information
Tamim Ansary will read from a work-in-progress called The Malang of Char Bagh at the SF Public Library on November 3, at 6:30pm. The Malang of Char Bagh is an Afghan historical novel, a story of British imperialism as seen from the other side. It takes readers from the soot-blackened kitchens of village compounds to the gorgeous fortresses of Afghan rebel lords. It moves from the intricate labyrinth of Kabul’s Grand Bazaar to the icy slopes of the Hindu Kush mountains, where the First Afghan-British War came to its horrific climax. Tamim Ansary will discuss the process of writing historical fiction and explore the history behind the fiction.
Walking & Writing was videotaped by OLLI and the Institute for the Next Generation Internet on October 18, for possible broadcast to other OLLIs and other educational partners.
Behind the classroom door: Brain teasers from the Exercising Your Brain class:
- Count the "F"s
Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of years.
*answer below
- You know you are standing between village A and village B. You also know that the villagers of A are compulsive liars and those of B are truth tellers. A villager is coming toward you on the path. Which question could you ask to make sure you know where village B is?
*answer below
Opportunities for Members:
Subjects over 65 Needed for Free MRI Study of Brain
Dr. Michael Weiner at the University of California, San Francisco are researching healthy brain aging and the causes of Alzheimer's disease, using MRI scanning. Subjects over the age of 65 are needed for this research. These subjects could either be healthy, or could have varying degrees of memory impairments including Alzheimer's disease. The research involves a short interview and a MRI scan, conducted by enthusiastic staff. MRIs are examined by a radiologist. Subjects are paid $20/hr for their time and transportation reimbursement may also be available. Those who are interested should call Jessica at any of the following numbers, and say that they want to participate in this research: 800.773.4883, 415.221.4810, ext. 4385, or e-mail Jessica at jblack@itsa.ucsf.edu.
Answers:
* Question 1: six
* Question 2: "Which village did you come from?"
Upcoming Events
October 24: second fall session begins
October 25: Lunchtime talk with Joan Holden, DTC, 12-1:30
November 15: World Affairs Brown Bag Lunch, DTC, 11:30-1:30
December 9: Celebration Event (you might also call it a holiday party) where OLLI members share their creative work from the Fall sessions, including a staged reading of a scene from the Geezer Theater's script. Site is still to be determined, 4:00pm-6:00pm
Spring Course Line-Up
We hear that many of you want to know which courses will be held in February, March, and April 2006 in order to plan your spring calendars. Here's the line-up by month:
February
Radical theater Workshop
Shamanic Journeys
A History of Conspiracy Theory
Creating an Anthology Chapbook
Exercising Our Brains
The Well-Made Story
Winetasting: Taking the Pain out of Wine
Global Lens: Current Events
Invest Like a Pro
Retirement Options
Photographing Your Best Friend
E-mail & Internet Basics
March
International Human Rights Law
San Francisco, 1906
Global Lens: Historical
Behind the Scenes: Conversations with Arts Leaders
Politics of the Supreme Court
Turning Points: Navigating Transitions
Conversations with Philanthropists: How they do what they do?
The Writers Circle
Know Your Personality Type
Introduction to Photoshop
Creating 1-Page Plans for Retirement
Maintaining Mobility
April
Walking in San Francisco, 1906
Presidential Campaigns & Elections
Global Lens: Experiments in Form
Improving Your Memory
Writing & Performing Monologues
Good & Loving Sex
Digital Photography Basics
Eating with the Seasons
Editors
Polly Babcock, Al Crowell, Charles Francis, and Susan Hoffman
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