Noted scholar offers guide to Finding Gold in Life’s Third Chapter
Nearly 70 Lewes and Rehoboth Beach-area residents took a fascinating journey over Presidents Day weekend without leaving home.
Kaye Lindauer, a longtime professor at Syracuse University, led a three-day symposium titled Golden Meanings. A noted Jungian scholar, Lindauer has been a professor of literature and religion for more than 31 years. Summer 2022 will mark her 32nd year teaching all nine weeks at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York. Six Cape Region residents, all Chautauqua regulars over many summers, were repeatedly impressed by Lindauer’s classes.
After summer ‘21, Lewes residents Marty D’Erasmo, JoEllen Jordan and Linda Palmer, along with Rehoboth residents Ginny Daly, Pat Hauptman and Joyce Lussier, talked about inviting her to the beach. They formed a committee in October, dubbing themselves Jung @ Heart. The six went out on a limb and invited Lindauer to come here, bringing along her sampling of Chautauqua. Although she was unfamiliar with Rehoboth and Lewes, Lindauer happily said yes. Each committee member invited a few friends, both men and women, who might be interested in taking Lindauer’s deep dive into philosophy, psychology, poetry, myth, literature, fairy tales, archetypes, religion and more.
The response was immediate, the experience was positive, and the weekend symposium, held Feb. 18-20 at Rehoboth Beach Country Club, was a resounding success. Programs covered Friday evening, all day Saturday and a half-day on Sunday, nearly 15 hours in all. The attendees all took copious notes, and reported feeling inspired and elevated by Lindauer’s expansive knowledge, experience, energy and enthusiasm covering a wide range of topics. Calling on her extraordinary depth, Lindauer used stories, fairy tales, legends, literature, poetry, art, movies and myth to explain Jungian psychology as she took attendees on an extended path into “Living the Unlived Life” plus “The Poetry of Aging.” She concluded the three-day brain banquet with games and prizes.
After the three days concluded, attendees agreed that Finding Gold in Life’s Third Chapter proved to be a worthy expedition with a seasoned and sensational guide. One participant said the experience “reminds me who I am.”
In addition to lunch and coffee breaks, another useful element to the symposium was short yoga stretches at timely intervals. Attendee Terry Gardner, owner of Rehoboth Beach Yoga, instructed the group on simple stretching poses. Gardner’s studio offers the deceptively simple yet beneficial style of Svaroopa Yoga. The group enjoyed and appreciated easy-to-do chair yoga as well as standing poses.
From the outset, the larger goal of the Jung @ Heart Committee was to create an ongoing annual program, enhancing and expanding the cultural and intellectual offerings of Lewes and Rehoboth. With the successful response to this trial balloon, similar offerings during the off-season are a strong future possibility for the wider community.
