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My oldest friend, Bill Hunt, was 75 when I met him, and he died when he was 82. He was a famous psychologist, listed in Who’s Who and honored by the American Psychological Association for his overall contribution to the field of psychology. He was so well-known that his divorce was reported in The New York Times. In college, I thought anyone who punctuated a story with, “More than ten years ago….” was old. Non-family old or older people were exotic. They knew more about life because they had lived more. They had made mistakes I incessantly and cruelly asked about, and in specific, intimate detail so I could learn from their mistakes. Older people possessed a world-weariness based on that ONE barrier that stood between me as a young person and the “real world” which everyone kept harping about: experience. My present oldest friends are only about 60, but they live in America. Recently I briefly met a man who was in his 70’s. I wanted to be friends but I’m shy, so…. I was a voracious reader before college anthropology, sociology and psychology courses. In college, just as geriatrics was becoming a recognized health field, I proposed that college dormitories should be integrated with old people’s residences. I theorized that the young learned from the old, but America had destroyed that universal and cultural learning experience with television. My more conspiracy-oriented thinking thought the powers that be had purposely disrupted this vital relationship to keep the young uninformed and thus much more easily manipulated. Not all societies discard the vast learning reservoirs of their older members and now that the Baby Boom in America is ageing, it’s all right that I’m not 25 forever. I still learn from older people: books, movies, plays, fellow travellers. But I miss the unique friendship of a much older person whose company I can learn wisdom from their time and experience. I miss the extended vision of cause-and-effect, the calming influence of a different youthed era, the quiet acceptance of life and the demands of the world vs. the demands of one’s own heart. I miss Bill Hunt a lot. Hunt, William A. He was a pioneer in research regarding psychopathology. During WWII, he directed a program to find and reject applicants who were psychopaths. I asked why, since they wanted to kill. “Because they could not be relied upon to follow orders.” Sadly he confessed he had written a book about higher education. As he aged, he realized he had made many mistakes. I asked why he didn’t cancel the publication. “It would hurt too many of my friends and colleagues.”
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I met Bill Hunt at Loyola University in Chicago where I taught part-time. The University hosted a marvelous Friday Afternoon Cocktail Hour for ALL teachers in ALL departments of the University. This is the only university I worked at that encouraged cross-department interaction on a social basis. It was such an enjoyable experience to meet interesting people, I was shocked that no other university offered such an opportunity.
Alice Delaney Walker - Teacher, Writer, Traveller 