Mondays with Mayra: Songwriting and Passionate Elders

Mondays with Mayra: OLLI's President Davidson, an Interview about LifeLongLearning among Cal-State, Long Beach's Elders

In this fascinating interview, Marc Davidson, the President of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Cal-State, Long Beach, discusses the organization's role in reinventing education for older adults. Moving beyond the confines of retirement, OLLI embraces the philosophy that one is never too old to learn, offering a curriculum centered on the pure joy of learning, free from the pressures of grades and academic credit. This lifelong learning approach helps participants find a renewed sense of purpose and fulfillment beyond their careers, fosters cognitive health and builds strong social connections. By providing a stimulating environment and diverse course options, OLLI empowers this  generation of learners to stay engaged with the world and continue their personal growth at every stage of life.

Mondays with Mayra: Open Video 2 My Friend Amy, on the Supreme Court

My friend Amy Coney Barrett whom I never met and who sits on the US Supreme Court and with whom I have a lot in common needs to know how I feel about certain issues as we both are mothers who have birthed and adopted children, white and brown, and both are practicing Catholics yet our beliefs are so different.  This mother worries about the inheritance our kids will get as Amy is also. Free speech? What about our brown children, what inheritance?

Mondays with Mayra - Open Video To Amy, Supreme Court, Fellow Mom

Host Dr. Mayra Fernández, mom of 17 children, 11 adopted, shares her thought-provoking ideas with her video friends in an "Open Video" to Amy on the Supreme Court whom she considers a fellow traveler with much in common: their womanhood, their educational background, Notre-Dame, their association with the island of Hispañola, their faith and .... a great love for their children, both birthed and adopted.  Dr. Mayra challenges Amy to remember what color skin Amy's two adopted children have and Mayra's and so many others. The big challenge indeed is to vote for the welfare of all children, not just theirs. and for Amy to think before Amy votes against her own black, immigrant children's welfare.

Mondays with Mayra: Songwriting and Passionate Elders

They had a dream: to be a songwriter! They realized that precious dream at Cal-State Long Beach's OLLI Center, a university withing a university with outstanding professors teaching the Elders of the communities around them. Watch, listen, observe that it is never too late with the right place, the right teachers and right dream to make it happen. These Elders prove it!

Mondays with Mayra: Grieving! It's the Pits!

There are all kinds of grieving. You grieve for a lost key (yikes!) to lost friends, precious family members (who are you going to call in the middle of the night when your life is falling apart?), a home, a spouse (we don't want death to part us!). But, perhaps, the deepest wound to heal from is the death of your child. It doesn't make sense. It's totally unfair. It doesn't follow the cycle of life, for God's sake! Speaking of God, what about him?  See how Mayra does grieving the child she lost but she'll also share that your grieving is personal, unique to you. Should you ask others to respect your grieving process? Watch this video so that you and those you love are grieving can make some sense of it. Or is there sense to it?