From Gilli The Autumn Timetable
As usual, we have sent you the timetable as a separate document so that you may access it more easily. You may also see it if you click here. Also click here for an up-to-date description of all the current classes.
The Monday Talks
The Monday Morning Talk this week looks at The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence with Chris Rees, past president of The British Computer Society and is particularly focused on the threats, and possibilities of AI. What are the ethical implications of the introduction of this increasing ubiquitous technology? Are IT companies prepared to consider ethical issues – or do we need to establish and enforce global standards of ethics?
Next week, we welcome back Dr David Marsh, a regular contributor to The Monday Morning Talks. He is a garden historian, lecturer and writer. He is co-convener of the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes seminar at Institute of Historical Research, London University, 2011 to date and is currently involved in setting up a national programme for garden history education. His talk is called ‘Puzzle Pictures: Deconstructing Paintings of Gardens since the 1540s’.
Recordings
Recordings of the Monday Morning Talks are available for a week or two afterwards. If you would like to have the link to a recording of any outside contributor – please email the Office. Recordings of other talks may also be available. Please check with the coordinator to request a link.
Many will have enjoyed Ralph Blumenau’s talk on Voltaire at the end of October – and we are delighted to announce that he is offering a second guest lecture on ‘William Morris’. This is planned for November 26 at 5pm.
From Naomi
We have had to make the unwelcome jump from Tier 3 to national lockdown. Sadly, we have been here before and the future is not bright at present. We have been informed by National Office that no in-person U3A classes are permitted now, be they indoors or outside. So, if by some chance a small group of you have been meeting, this must stop during lockdown. Thank goodness for Zoom.
We know how stressful and undermining lockdown can be, so we hope all of you can stay positive. If you feel you are slipping, please let us help you. Phone a friend; we at U3A are your friends, so if you need a boost, please phone one of us. The priority is to not let events overtake you and act before you begin to feel even worse.
We have not given up on renewing membership online, but this method is not ready yet. There is some light at the end of the tunnel but, as you may have guessed, there have been problems in setting it up. In the meantime, the only way for you to renew your membership is to email the Office and ask for your pre-printed form to be emailed to you. (If you have printer problems, ask for it to be posted to you). It has been heartwarming that so many of our loyal members have renewed in this way.
Stay well and take care.
Our Digital U3A
Please remember that our digital timetable is for our own members. It is very tempting to want to share it with our friends and relations but if we let non-U3AL members join our classes, then this could mean that possibly some may become full and our own members would not be able to attend them. Moreover some of you may feel cheated if others were able to attend any of our sessions without payment. This may seem harsh – some U3As do allow other U3A members to attend a few of their monthly talks but none, as far as I am aware, allows them to join their weekly classes.
Also, it has been suggested that it would be a good idea to clarify the method of accessing our classes on Zoom, so here goes. Some of our sessions in the timetable that we send you each week have “Click Here” in the third column. These, such as the Monday morning talks, are for all members who wish to attend. Several other classes are also available just by clicking “here”.
Other sessions have the coordinator’s email address in the third column. These coordinators have chosen to personally invite those members who wish to attend the group. If you would like to attend, please email the coordinator who will send you an email with the necessary link so that you can join the class.
From Wally Howard
Watch “Morata Affair- Part Six” on Vimeo:
And “Reflections at 95 – Part 12” on Vimeo:
From Mickey Yudkin
Please note the new date and time of my class: “Psychoanalysis Story Telling and Feelings” is on Thursdays at 4.30pm, starting on 12 November. If you would like to join, please email Mickey Yudkin to give her some idea of numbers.
End of Term Entertainment
Come along you singers, dancers, story tellers, stand-up comedians, reciters of poetry, musicians, magicians or anyone willing to “have a go”.at lifting our spirits and sharing our talents on Zoom. Amalia has spoken to Ralph Bermudez, one of the Drama Group coordinators, to get the ball rolling. Please let us know If you would like to entertain us at the end of term.
From Maureen Bett’s Thursday Art Class.
More samples next week
From Maureen 
From Shirley 
From Avril 
From Manny
And from Steve’s Wednesday Art Class
From Iona 
From Tina 
From Mei Ling
From Pieta Ruck Keene
I’ve started a new block of classes and the zoom link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83422701872.These classes will focus on the anatomy of breath and all of the components that make breathing easy. The dates are: Nov 10, 2020 11:30 AM; Nov 17, 2020 11:30 AM; Nov 24, 2020 11:30 AM; Dec 1, 2020 11:30 AM; Dec 8, 2020 11:30 AM; Dec 15, 2020 11:30 AM.
You can download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
A reminder
There will be no Medicine/Art Class this week with Michael Baum.
To Make you smile
God does have a sense of humour!
Most seniors never get enough exercise, soin His wisdom God decreed that seniors become forgetful so they would have to search for their glasses, keys and other things, thus doing more walking. And God looked down and saw that it was good. Then God saw there was another need. In His wisdom, He made seniors lose co-ordination so they would drop things, requiring them to bend, reach, and stretch. And God looked down and saw that it was good. Then God decided seniors would have additional calls of nature, thus providing more exercise. And God looked down and saw that it was good. So, if you find that as you age, you are getting up and down more, remember it’s God’s will. It is all in your best interests, even though you mutter under your breath.
And if you are not in the smiling mood……
Pooh woke up that morning, and he couldn’t stop the tears from coming. He lay in bed, and he cried, and cried, and cried. Then the phone rang. It was Piglet.
“Oh Piglet,” said Pooh, between sobs, “I just feel so Sad – almost as if I might never be happy again. And I know that I shouldn’t be feeling like this. I know there are many people who are worse off, and I really have no right to be crying, with my lovely house, and my lovely garden, and the lovely woods all around me. But oh, Piglet: I am just SO Sad.”
Piglet was silent for a while, then he said, “You know, it isn’t a competition.” “What isn’t a competition?” asked Pooh.
“It’s a mistake we often make” said Piglet, “to think that because there are people who are worse off, that somehow it invalidates how we feel but that simply isn’t true. You have as much right to feel unhappy as the next person and, Pooh, you also have the right to get help.”
“Help? What help?” asked Pooh. “I don’t need help, Piglet. “Do I?” Piglet said that one of the most important things is not to let all the Sadness become trapped inside you. “What’s more”, Piglet reminded Pooh, “there isn’t a minimum level of Sad that you have to feel before speaking to someone”. Then Piglet asked Pooh to open his window and look up at the sky.
“You see that sky?” Piglet asked his friend. “Do you see the blues and the golds and that big fluffy cloud?”
Pooh looked, and he could indeed see the blues and the golds and the big fluffy cloud.
“You and I,” continued Piglet, “are both under that same sky. And so, whenever the Sad comes, I want you to look up at that sky, and know that, however far apart we might be physically…we are also just as together as we have ever been.”
“Do you think this will ever end?” asked Pooh in a small voice.”It will pass,” confirmed Piglet. “And I promise you, one day, you and I shall once again sit together, close enough to touch, sharing a little smackerel of something under that blue gold sky.”
We all need a piglet in our lives just now.