Only time will tell

“Time interval is a strange and contradictory matter in the mind. It would be reasonable to suppose that a routine time or an eventless time would seem interminable. It should be so, but it is not. It is the dull eventless times that have no duration whatever. A time splashed with interest, wounded with tragedy, crevassed with joy – that’s the time that seems long in the memory. And this is right when you think about it. Eventlessness has no posts to drape duration on. From nothing to nothing is no time at all.”

— John Steinbeck, “East of Eden”

In the blink of an eye. Like watching paint dry. Both clichés adequately describe the passage of time during the last 400 days since the pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization. This past year, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about time, marveling at how it is simultaneously passing by so quickly and so slowly all at once. What a remarkable phenomenon. There has been so much eventfulness and eventlessness, it’s hard to decipher just how long it’s been since this or that happened. I feel like I could spend forever thinking about this, however long that might be…

Stay safe and healthy,

Tracy Jacobs

Osher at Towson University presents

The Return of Brood X: The Mysterious Magicicada

Jane Wolfson, Ph.D.
Friday, April 23 at 11:00 a.m.

Periodical Cicadas, Magicicada spp, remain a mystery to biologists. The public becomes aware of their existence only when vast numbers emerge from the ground synchronously, every 13 or 17 years. While their presence is hard to ignore when they are out and about, what they are doing the rest of their lives and why they are doing it is only partially understood. Emerging broods consist of more than one species and different broods are emerging in different regions of North American almost every year. Discover what we know about Periodical Cicadas, their development, how they sing, their impact on wildlife, and the threats that they face so that you will better be able to appreciate Brood X when it appears in May.

The Osher Advisory Board will be electing two at-large members to replace those whose two-year terms have expired. The Advisory Board will also be filling the position of advisory board secretary.

Members can nominate a candidate with his/her permission. Self-nominations are also accepted. Nomination forms are available online by clicking the links below:

• At-large board member nomination form and instructions
• Board secretary nomination form and instructions

Forms must be completed and submitted no later than April 21 via email to osher@towson.edu.

Please refer to the nomination forms for qualification details.

Term commitment periods for newly selected at-large members and secretary will begin on July 1, 2021 and run through June 30, 2023. The Advisory Board will review, vote and elect members from the submitted nominations during the May meeting. All candidates will be notified of the voting results via email immediately after that election.

Questions about the process should be directed to Tracy Jacobs at tjacobs@towson.edu.

Towson University Department of Occupational Therapy & Occupational Science presents

Learn about resources for older drivers

April 30, 2021 at 10–10:30 a.m.

Learn about safety, improving driving confidence, car fit clinics, and more. This presentation is led by TU Occupational Therapy doctoral students.

Osher Online Book Discussion: Not in My Neighborhood

Thursday, April 29 at 3 p.m.

Join Osher members and others to discuss “Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City” by Antero Pietila.

BTU and TU Office of Inclusion & Institutional Equity presents

Black Butterfly: A Conversation with Dr. Lawrence Brown
Community engagement, strengthening Black neighborhoods, and the role of higher education

Tuesday, May 4 at 12–1:30 p.m.

Join Towson University for a unique conversation with Dr. Lawrence Brown, author of "The Black Butterfly," to explore racial equity in Baltimore City and to understand the role everyone has to play in making a real difference and strengthening Black neighborhoods. Everyone is invited to attend. Together we will explore how community engagement needs to transition to center and integrate racial equity.

Osher members are invited to watch this recorded lecture through May 2.

The Klan Whisperer: Daryl Davis

Music is his profession, but bettering race relations is his obsession. In between gigs, Daryl Davis has spent 37 years intentionally meeting with Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi and Alt Right leaders and members. He has become the impetus for over 200 White supremacists to renounce that ideology. Not an easy feat for a White person, let alone someone who is Black. Davis will share the stories of his encounters with those who have hated him and his successful methods that have turned some into his friends and supporters.

Amsterdam's People of the Book: The Untold Story of the Jews, the Reformation and the Bible

Benjamin Fisher, Ph.D. and Rita Costa-Gomes, Ph.D.
Wednesday, April 28 at 5:30 p.m.

The Protestant Reformation permanently altered the political and religious landscape of Europe in the sixteenth century. It shattered and transformed the institutional authority of the church in Europe, and changed the way that religion was practiced across the continent. The Reformation altered Jewish society and culture as well. Dr. Fisher surveys how Jews in the seventeenth-century Netherlands interacted with diverse Protestant movements, new teachings, and Christian religious texts, and how these encounters unexpectedly changed Jewish thinking about Judaism, the Bible, and even Jesus and Christianity.