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Annual Fund Reminder
by Cookie Nelson, Chair of Special Events Committee
Time is Running Out!!!
If you have not made your gift to the Annual Fund, we would appreciate your donation.
Our fiscal year ends May 31st. Thank you for your support and participation.
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Wanted: Second Vice President
By Zelda Schwartz, Chair of Nominating Committee
The opportunity to reinvent oneself in our retirement years is a daunting yet creative experience, be it in choosing our WISE courses, making new friends, or in thinking about leadership positions within WISE that help drive its mission. As nominating chair, it’s my privilege to invite members to consider applying for the exciting role of Second Vice President of WISE!
The position of Second Vice President is open and is seen as an amazing opportunity to enter a team training experience over time. This commitment would enable one to learn about the history and the organizational and substantive aspects of the program as we enter our 26th year. It would incorporate membership on the Council, Curriculum Planning Committee, and Strategic Planning Process.
Qualifications: The nominating committee is looking for an energetic member eager to assume a four-year commitment of leadership, first as Second VP and then as First VP, with the anticipation of becoming president of our exciting Lifelong Learning Institute. One need not arrive at the start with any set number of years of previous membership, as enthusiasm and willingness to train are more significant qualifications! Please think long and hard and decide to join our leadership team and throw your hat into the ring. Debating skills not necessary! Anderson Cooper is not a member of WISE.
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Course Spotlight: Three Famous Voices
By Stephen White
I have been asked why I chose three female writers to forge a WISE course; is there any logic in my seeming madness. Emily Dickinson is, in my biased view, the best woman poet in the Western Tradition. When I day dream (which is much of the time), I have a dream that I lived in her body in an earlier incarnation, that her poems are familiar because I imagined them. She intellectually wrestled (like Jacob) with the $64,000 question we all wish to know the answer to; viz, what happens when we die. Her answer was that neither logic nor intuition gives us the answer, but that we should try anyway, as Job did. She wrote about being drunk on Nature (“I drink a liquor never brewed…”). Her subjects are Love and Death. What else is there, she wondered. She wrote about Beauty and Truth but remains an enigma as far as her life and love went.
Sylvia Plath wrote much less cheerfully of her own struggle with mental illness and left one novel and a few poems she wrote just before she succeeded in killing herself. “The Bell Jar” is important as a document in the feminist movement. Can a talented woman “have it all?” or be both a successful wife and mother and at the same time have a meaningful career?
Margaret Atwood created a negative utopia in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which seems more relevant today than when it was published in 1986. Advances in technology have made more credible the Big Brother of “1984,” and our liberty and pursuit of happiness seem threatened. Security seems to trump privacy. When I am in a public place, say an elevator, even though I am by myself I know I am being watched. At airports and on the Internet we are exposed more than we want. Atwood, who studied the Puritans, warns of a possible theocracy in our future. We cannot say we were not warned.
When I was in graduate school, the prevailing dogma was called “New Criticism,” which asserts that literature should be studied without reference to the time and culture and life of the writer, but studied in isolation. In this course, and in my fifty years of teaching, I have done just the opposite. These three women writers are seen as products of their time and family and culture. If they are good enough, their work will achieve a certain immortality, which Plato asserted is the goal of love. Some of us achieve that in a limited way through having children and grandchildren, and great writers, like Plato, through their written words. Dickinson, Plath and Atwood will live beyond their specific incarnations and at the same time were shaped by the times and culture in which they existed. Their writings are both timely and timeless.
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What Are You Doing This Summer?
By Susan Perschbacher
This June we are taking WISE in a slightly new direction. Plans are being finalized for two summer outings — a kind of trial balloon for WISE summer offerings. You will receive more details by email as we get closer to the dates. 
On Wednesday, June 13th:
- North to Wachusett led by Deb Cary of Massachusetts Audubon. This daylong trip will feature Wachusett Mountain, the State Park Information Center, Wachusett Meadow Audubon, an interpretive farm, Wachusett Reservoir, Clinton Dam, and Tower Hill Botanic Garden.
Then on Monday, June 25th:
- West to Quabbin led by Cliff Read of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. This daylong trip will feature Quabbin Visitor’s Center, Quabbin Dam, an observation tower, and a foundation from a house moved prior to the flooding of the valley.
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Save the Date
The Special Events Committee wish to thank all of you who sent suggestions for speakers and trips for the future. We received many more than we can select, but we look forward to preparing another exciting year.
Members will receive details from the WISE Office as time gets closer to the event. This is just a preliminary notice of what a WISE membership offers beyond the popular courses. Also, don’t forget the WISE Movie Club and Book Club!
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WISE day trip to New Bedford with museums and lunch
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WISE 25th Anniversary Celebration on Assumption College campus in Ballroom A at Tsotsis Family Academic Center
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WISE Annual meeting on Assumption College campus in Hagan Hall with guest speaker Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus
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All day excursion to explore Wachusett Reservoir
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All day excursion to explore Quabbin Reservoir
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Enrollment begins online at 12:01 am for WISE fall courses
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Maria Sirois Lecture Pics
Ask yourself every night, "What was the best moment of today?"
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