254 Grief and Loss Across the Lifespan
if a project comes along that I want to do, I will certainly take it. I really love
the work. If I think about what was going on inside me, at that point, a lot of it
had to do with energy. I realized that I no longer had the “aggressive” energy
needed to sell consulting, and I began to get more involved in other activities.
I had been a tour guide for the Mural Arts Program, so began to do more of
that. I had long been a member of an improvisational theater group, and a
colleague suggested that I teach a class at what is now “OLLI,” The Osher
Lifelong Learning Institute, or Temple’s School for Older People. I also knew
that I wanted to do some traveling, so I asked one of my fellow improv actors
to co-teach with me so that we could each handle the class alone if needed.
That has been a very successful and satisfying endeavor and this is our 4th or
5th year of teaching. I am also a student in some classes at OLLI.
A major thread through all of my paid work has been social change—as
a teacher, as a trainer and facilitator, as an organizational consultant, even as a
career coach, my focus has always been on how to make things better for the
individual or the group of people who work in a particular environment. And,
on a broader scale, how to bring peace to the world.
My “change agent” focus grew out of what had earlier become a pas-
sionate purpose, my anti-war activities in the Vietnam War era. I moved to
Washington, DC in 1962, had a baby, and made a new friend who introduced
me to Women Strike for Peace (WSP), an active anti-war group of women who
were, among other things at that time, protesting the nuclear testing program
that was putting Strontium-90 into the grass fields where cows grazed. Thus,
the milk that the cows produced—and which I drank so that I could nurse
my baby—was laced with Strontium-90. I was outraged and this marked my
first entry into political/social activism. I became very active with WSP, which
expanded to include civil rights, women’s rights, other progressive causes.
I knew that I wanted to keep this passionate purpose in my life and work.
Later on, when it came time to earn a living, go to graduate school, and so
forth, I was overjoyed when I found a profession that would enable me put my
social conscience to work. By the same token, when I was no longer working, I
looked for outlets for that interest and in 2005, when this country was mired in
George Bush’s unnecessary and idiotic war in Iraq, I did volunteer work with the
“Iraq Veterans Against the War,” and a year later helped found the Granny Peace
Brigade Philadelphia, and have been a very active member ever since. This cer-
tainly fills my passion for political/social activism, particularly anti-war activities.
Do I feel a sense of loss at not having the consulting work? Yes, for, as said
earlier, I love the work; and no, for I feel enriched by my many current activi-
ties, and doubt I would have the energy for full-time work anymore. I do look
for ways to earn extra money and sometimes work as a standardized patient
at Philadelphia area medical schools.
In general, I am quite satisfied with the various projects with which I am
involved—I love teaching improv theater and staged reading at OLLI; I still
enjoy doing mural tours, and I feel most passionate about the work I do with
the Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia, for it feeds my need to take some
action about the state of the world today, and it keeps me in close touch with a
wonderful group of women who feel as strongly as do I about war and peace
and social justice.