Earlier this year, OLLI at Illinois took the first steps toward a collaboration with the National Endowment for the Humanities with a series of meetings with NEH representatives that introduced the partnership to the OLLI Board and committees, as well as leaders from the University of Illinois Library and local libraries.

This partnership represents a rich addition to the educational programs that OLLI offers, and a wonderful opportunity to work together with the exceptional resources on campus and within the community. The NEH mission includes lifelong learning as one of its platforms. The materials produced under the auspices of the NEH are intended for a broad audience, and OLLI is a natural and congenial partner for this kind of outreach at the local level. Because many of the materials (and related teaching guides) are already among the holdings of the University and community libraries, this connection is further strengthened.

In May, the Board approved the formation of an ad hoc working group of OLLI members to steer the pilot year of this collaboration; the working group was appointed and began its work in the summer. The group includes Martha Wagner, chair; John Bennett; Debbie Day; Jan Grace; Paula Kaufman; and Jon Liebman, Board Liaison.

This fall, we move forward with a plan to inaugurate this collaboration with a diverse slate of projects that incorporate NEH materials into existing OLLI programming and develop new programming/partnerships around outreach activities. Activities will include documentary film screenings and discussions held at local libraries and at OLLI; study groups that utilize NEH-produced materials; and a live-streaming viewing of the NEH's prestigious Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities in spring 2015.

More details about these and other events will follow as those plans develop. For now, we are delighted to announce the first event of the year:

Presented by the Champaign Public Library and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Humanities. This event is free and open to the public. 

Directed by Stanley Nelson, this 2011 film offers an inside look at a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights struggle, when a brave band of activists challenged segregation in the Deep South. There will be a brief introduction before the film, and a discussion with the audience following the screening. Go here to learn more about the film and the "Created Equal" documentary series.  

This month we're highlighting several websites that offer practical resources for "going green." This is not a comprehensive list, but may help you get started.

What does "going green" mean?

Hubpages has a basic article that explains what it means to "go green" and suggests that you do not need to be a "tree hugger" to be a good green citizen.

USA.gov has many interesting articles including
"Being a Green Consumer", "Making Greener Product Choices", "Verifying Green Marketing Claims", and "Reusing and Recycling". You can subscribe to the "Go Green" newsletter from this site.

Do you want the numbers?

Statisticbrain provides statistics on almost anything you want, including information on the environment. Click on the "geographic" tab on the homepage and you'll find a list of topics, such as plastic bag statistics, environmental statistics, and water statistics.

How do you start?

Treehugger is "dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream" and is a good site for anyone who wants to go green but is overwhelmed by the huge amount of information available. The article "10 Reasons to Go Green Starting Now" gives ten reasons why you should go green, and links to ten of their articles on how to go green. The site also offers daily and weekly newsletters.

The Worldwatch Institute provides a list of ten ways to go green that will also save you money. You can sign up for their newsletter, too.

Brighthub's goal is to provide useful, expert-driven guidance in a variety of areas. Their environmental topics include such things as green living and green computing. Recent articles include "Fun Summer Trips that are Environmentally Friendly," "A Story of Recycling: The Journey of Aluminum Cans," and even "How to Green Your Funeral"!

Liz Abraham

I have two but do not know to whom to attribute them: "To have a child is to choose forever to allow your heart to walk around outside your body," and "To see the right and not to do it suggests a lack of courage or of character." They have been in my head forever. The second was on a bulletin board in high school. The first I read in a parenting magazine. I fear they are paraphrased!  

John Avelis

 "'Necessity' is the plea for every infringement of human liberty; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." - William Pitt 

Amani Ayad  

"it takes a long time to become young." - Pablo Picasso  

Sandy Bales

I own an artwork by folk artist Howard Finster. At one time he was a Baptist minister, but changed course when he got the "call" to pursue visionary art to spread the gospel. His Paradise Garden in Georgia is well known, and part of it is now in the High Museum in Atlanta. The Krannert Art Museum hosted a retrospective of his work a few years ago and published a catalog. The piece I own is a plywood cut-out of a Coke bottle painted with automobile enamel. The quote I like is written on it among mythical people, a church house, cars and trees: "Study What You Stand For Be Sure Your Right."

Alice Berkson

I came across this quote at a museum last year: "Form follows function, but both report to emotion." - Willie G. Davidson, Chief Styling Officer, Harley-Davidson

Ivana Bodulic

"Travel ... it disrupts all habit and endlessly jolts each prejudice." - Memoirs of Hadrian by Margaret Yourcenar

Susan Bonner

"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away." - Hilary Cooper

Sam Bostaph

Here's one of my favorite quotes: "In matters of philosophy and science authority has ever been the great opponent of truth. A despotic calm is the triumph of error; in the republic of the sciences sedition and even anarchy are commendable." - W.S. Jevons

Kathy Bowersox

This is from the famous French writer Michel de Montaigne, and I have had it displayed (in both French and English) where I have been able to remind myself of it often for about 40 years: "The most certain sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness."

Sandra Casserly

My favorites: "Anything worth doing ... is worth over-doing." "Wisdom is knowing how little we know." "I can resist everything except temptation." (All three by Oscar Wilde.) "I can take any amount of criticism ... as long as it is praise." - Noel Coward. "If all the world's a stage ... I want better lighting." - author unknown. If you wonder about my excess in number of quotes, refer to the first quote!

Chris Catanzarite As I get older, I have an even deeper appreciation for this lyrical wisdom from Lou Reed: "There's a bit of magic in everything, and then some loss to even things out."  

Frank Chadwick

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." - H.L. Mencken. My other favorite is: "In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice they're different." - Yogi Berra

Yoline Chandler

One of my favorite quotations was attributed to Winston Churchill. Annoyed that an editor had rewritten one of his sentences so that it would no longer end in a preposition, Churchill replied, "This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put." Typical of Churchill's wit!

Pat. Chapel

Something someone else said? Nothing significant. Something I often repeated: "Nobody ever volunteered to do a bad job." When still working, I used that a couple times a week, all workshops, all orientations.

Isabel Cole

"Unusual travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God." - Kurt Vonnegut

Linda Coleman

Can't pick my single favorite quotation, but here's one current fav: "[W]e should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Craig Cutbirth

I believe this quote from Tennyson's poem, "Ulysses," is particularly relevant for OLLI people. I've loved it long before I was old enough to truly appreciate it! "Though much is taken, much abides; and though/ We are not now that strength which in old days/ Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;/ One equal temper of heroic hearts,/ Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will/ To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

I have this in my cabinet in my workroom so it can be a good reminder to me, especially those times when I think I could have or should have accomplished more: "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you should begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jon Davis

"Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda. This is a favorite of mine when someone says, "Well, I'll try to (fill in the blank)."

Donna Davis-Pearson

My favorite quote is by Mark Twain: "If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but deteriorate the cat."

Beth Felts

"Follow your bliss." - Joseph Campbell

Diane Gottheil

"Has it not been seen that momentary passions and immediate interests have more control over human destiny than general and remote considerations of policy, utility, and justice." - Alexander Hamilton

Mic Greenberg

"Time is the inexorable force in the universe that make us all equal." - author unknown

David Gross

"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." - Niels Bohr

Sandy Hall

From Maya Angelou: "When you know better, you do better."

Andy Harner

A longtime favorite of mine is O'Toole's Commentary on Murphy's Law (the jelly-side-down rule): "Murphy was an optimist."

Kathleen Holden

My very favorite, and the one we used in the introduction to the OLLI video about the Citizen Scientist Program: "When one door of happiness closes, another one opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." - Helen Keller

Judy Jones

I am not really quite as unsociable as this favorite quotation makes me sound, just lazy. It is: "A good day is  when no one shows up and you don't have to go anywhere." - Burt Shavitz, founder of Burt's Bees

Linda Jordan

One of my favorites is by Friedrich Nietzsche: "Without music life would be a mistake." Another is by Martin Luther: "Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world."

Pat Jordan

From Ralph Waldo Emerson: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

Maxine Kaler

My favorite quote is from a (sadly) long-deceased friend: "Hope is as cheap as despair." I try to always remember that.

Debbie Karplus

Not really a favorite or famous quotation, but in my opinion, darn funny: "I was addicted to the Hokey Pokey, but I turned myself around." Have a laugh!

Mary Carroll King

"When one door closes another one opens ... but you have to walk through it."  - author unknown

Curtis and Susan Krock

Our favorite quotation is "Better late than never," which we rendered in its Latin version for our wedding in 2006. Susan and I dated each other during the summers of 1959 and 1960 in Fort Smith, Arkansas, where we both grew up. We then moved on with our lives, married other partners, and got together after the death of our respective wife and husband, and have now enjoyed 8 years of marriage.

Rosemary Laughlin

It's difficult to choose a favorite quotation, but the first one that came to my mind was one often given as a high school English teacher. It's the opening of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice I've been turning over in my mind ever since. 'Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,' he told me, 'just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages you've had.'"

Michael Lyon

I have two favorites. This one has hung on my wall or above the door at work for the last 32 years: "What you tolerate becomes your standard." I do not know who originated it, it has been a guiding principle to me. The next quotation, from Stephen Covey, was beneath my email signature at the University for the last 15 years before retiring in June: "One of the most important ways to manifest integrity is to be loyal to those who are not present. In doing so, we build the trust of those who are present." It too has guided me well over the years.

Michael Martin

From Shakespeare's Measure for Measure: "The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, may in the sworn twelve have a thief or two guiltier than him they try."

Robert McGrath

Far too many favorite quotes to pick. For this collection, perhaps: "Who am I? Why am I here? Forget the questions! Someone gimme another beer!" - from the song "Everything Louder Than Everything Else" by Jim Steinman

Barbara Meyer

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." - attributed to Thomas J. Watson, CEO of IBM,1943    

Sharon Michalove

"What can we do better than gather our books around us? In them we see unfolded  before us vast stores of knowledge, for our delight, it may be, or for inspiration." -  Petrus Palus Vegerius, Master at Arms & Educator, c.1404   

Sharron Mies

"If you know all of the answers, you haven't asked all of the questions." - old Amish saying (from a daily calendar I once had)

Liz Miley

"Faith is the bird that feels the Light and sings while the dawn is still dark." - Rabindranath Tagore

Carlton Mills

"In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them." - John Von Neumann

John Moore

"With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Mike Murphy

Always liked this line from Waiting for Godot: "Don't touch me. Don't question me. Don't speak to me. Stay with me."

Traci Nally

This is my most recent favorite quote. On NPR, Elaine Stritch mentioned this quote from her late husband John Bay, "Everybody's got a sack of rocks."

Mark Netter

 "Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." - Abraham Lincoln

Tom Neufer-Emswiler

I collect quotes so it is hard to pick just one. I like to send a quote out with each birthday greeting I give on Facebook. I encourage the birthday person to see this quote as something to think about during their coming year. Here is a quote I like a lot: "When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy.' They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life." - John Lennon

Carol Ordal

Barbara Orden

"The best gift to give someone is a chance." - Lily Tomlin

John Palen

"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." - G.K. Chesterton

Susan Pensinger

Here is my favorite quote to share with OLLI: "I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see." - John Burroughs

Mark Petty

My favorite quote is from Valdez is Coming. Valdez (Burt Lancaster) is asked by the ramrod protagonist, "When did you hunt the Apache?" Valdez replies, "Before I knew better."

Don Pilcher

"You can't peel a banana till you separate him from the bunch." - author unknown

Bob Porter

"Time is a Recorder, not a Determiner."

Pat Porter

"If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams, and you will always look lovely." - Roald Dahl

Sam Reese

"There is a destiny that makes us brothers,/ None goes his way alone;/ All that we send into the lives of others/ Comes back into our own." - Edwin Markham

Bob Riley

"I may not know who I am, but I know where I am from." - Wallace Stegner. "Remembrance of a particular form is but regret for a particular moment; and houses, roads, avenues are as fugitive, alas, as the years." - Marcel Proust. "The critics ranked rows on rows/ fill the enormous plaza full,/ but only one man really knows/ and he's the one who fights the bull." - Robert Graves

Barak Rosenshine

"Everything's fine, until it isn't." - author unknown

Joe Rotman

I have a few favorites. The first is useful when I'm talking to someone whose politics I loathe: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." - Ralph Waldo Emerson. The second comes up at least once every time I travel: "Ay, now am I in Arden, the more fool I. When I was at home, I was in a better place, but travelers must be content." - Shakespeare, As You Like It. And when I'm daydreaming, "Twas brillig and the slivey tove ..." (Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) is always lurking.

Mike Schlueter

"You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child." - Dr. Seuss  

Pat Schutt

"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." - Abraham Lincoln

Mary Severinghaus

"The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, 'What good is it?' If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." - Aldo Leopold, Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold

Susan Shoemaker

"It's not true that people stop pursing dreams because they grow old. They grow old because they stop pursuing dreams." - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Birute Simaitis

I have two, very different: "Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." - Anatole France. "Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain." - Vivian Greene (paraphrase)

Sue Smith

There are so many ideas that inspire me at different times of my life and in different circumstances. That said, I discovered the quote below on a signboard this spring while I was visiting Washington DC to participate in discussions regarding the issues surrounding coal. Many in east central Illinois are fighting a proposed coalmine that would be opened in SW Vermilion County. The following quote from that signboard was just what I needed while heading to the Rayburn building to talk with some of our congressmen and continues to inspire me today: "It always seems impossible until it is done." - Nelson Mandela

Jerry Soesbe

One of my favorite quotes: "Modern man's proudest works have devastated his most important inheritance. Almost every triumph of his civilization has been a defeat for the land - the land on which he lives; the thin, finite covering of his planet upon which he depends for life itself. For all our wondrous works and soaring dreams, the process of life is sustained by six inches of soil and the fact that it rains every now and then." - Dan W. Lufkin

Beth Stafford

"Adolescence is so universally tragic and retrospectively hilarious." - author unknown

Diane Stensland

"If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back." - author unknown

Cheri Sullivan

"When I was young, I admired clever people; now that I'm older, I admire kind people." - Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Susan Taylor

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." - the 14th Dalai Lama

Denise Taylor

Wow, WAY too many "favorite" quotes to choose from. But I have a couple I come back to: "Poetry and Hums aren't things which you get. They're things which get you. And all you can do is go where they can find you." - Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne). "I am waiting for them to prove that God is really American." - Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Wendell Berry, Maya Angelou, ee cummings, Rita Dove, my grandpa, etc. - no disrespect intended!

Susan Teicher

Here's a quote I came across recently that I really like: "Most men can withstand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character give him power." - said by none other than our own Abraham Lincoln. Another good quote: "It is not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin

Carolyn and Ralph Trimble

"Behind every sad story is a sad story."

Sandy Updike

One of my favorites is this one by Roger Ebert, from Life Itself. It was printed on memory cards that were passed out at the 15th EbertFest. "We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out."

Ginny Waaler

"Your majesty," says Anna, "the Bible was not written by men of science but by men of faith." - from The King and I

Allen Wehrman

"Bark less, wag more!"

Jean Weigel

Here are some of my favorites: "It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation which give happiness." - Thomas Jefferson. "I dwell in possibility." - Emily Dickinson. "In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy, sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways." - Edith Wharton. I love "Quench not the spirit" but no longer remember where I read it.

Rosalind Weinberg

Sense comes to Macbeth when his wife (his only ally) is dead and all else has failed him: "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,/ Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,/ To the last syllable of recorded time;/ And all our yesterdays have lighted fools/ The way to dusty death./ Out, out, brief candle!/ Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player/ That struts and frets his hour upon the stage/ And then is heard no more. It is a tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury/ Signifying nothing." - Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)

Marganit Weinberger-Rotman

Two favorites: "Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity," and "La madre degli stupidi e sempre incinta. [The mother of stupidity is always pregnant]."

Tony Welsh

Grampa used to say: "Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things."

Chris Whippo

The following quote from Sr. Mary Lou Kownacki was a favorite of Fred Rogers (aka Mister Rogers): "There isn't anyone you couldn't love once you've heard their story."

Sharon Williams

My favorite quote is: "Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for." - Immanuel Kant