Linda Klien - Keys To Life

The Keys to Life: Linda Klein

What if the greatest treasures in life aren't found in places—but in people?

In this deeply meaningful episode of The Keys to Life™, host Algie Mosley welcomes someone who helped shape his own journey—his former Sacramento City College professor, Linda Klein. More than an educator, Linda has spent a lifetime opening minds, encouraging growth, and reminding others that learning never truly ends.

With grace, humility, and quiet strength, Linda reflects on overcoming gender discrimination in the legal profession, discovering her true calling in developmental education, and finding purpose not in titles or achievements, but in the lives she has touched along the way. Her story is a beautiful reminder that some of life's greatest victories are won not by force, but through perseverance, compassion, and an unwavering belief in the potential of others.

Linda shares the three keys that have guided her life:

• Keep your mind open and never stop learning.
• Lead with compassion and extend grace, even when others see the world differently.
• Care for your body, because a healthy life gives you the freedom to fully embrace every season of living.

She also reflects on what she would tell her fifteen-year-old self, the priceless gift of conversations between generations, and why true joy is discovered not in accumulating more, but in appreciating what we already have.

This isn't just a conversation about growing older—it's about growing wiser. It's about recognizing that every wrinkle carries a lesson, every hardship shapes a purpose, and every life holds keys capable of unlocking hope for the next generation.

Because when we take the time to truly listen, we discover that the greatest legacy we leave behind isn't what we owned...

It's the wisdom we pass on.

Transcript

Linda Klien Interview

SPEAKER_03 0:00

My name is LG Mosley, you know. There is a treasure walking around on this planet Earth right now. And it isn't money, it isn't fame, it isn't status, it's wisdom. Wisdom carried by people who've lived 60, 70, 80 years carrying stories, scars, victories, prayers, and truth. But every day, we lose a little more of it. So I made a decision. Before that wisdom disappears, I'm gonna capture it. Every episode, I'll ask one simple question. What are your three keys to life? And then we'll go even deeper. If you could travel back and place those three treasures into the hands of your 15-year-old self, what would they be? Because somewhere, someone is standing at life's crossroads, searching for exactly the wisdom you're about to hear. Welcome to The Keys to Life. Unlocking life's greatest treasures. One key at a time.

SPEAKER_04 1:03

Welcome to Keys of Life, the podcast where wisdom speaks. I'm your host, Al G. Mosley, and on this show, we sit down and talk with people 60 years and older to capture life lessons the younger generation needs to hear. Today I'm honored to be joined by Linda Klein, one of my former professors from Sacramento City College nearly over 35 years ago. Linda, thank you so much. But more importantly, I want to thank you for being here today.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Well, thank you for being in my life for 35 years. It's been a wonderful journey with you, Algie.

SPEAKER_04 1:39

It's been a wonderful one with you too, Linda. In more ways than you can ever imagine. When I first met you, I had no idea of the journey. You introduced me to so many things, but education was one of the key things. You taught me how to read, not just read, but why am I reading, right? And taught me to get more in depth into my reading and my education. You introduced me to my inspiration, My Angelo. And I've had the opportunity to hug and cry with her in Washington, D.C. And a lot of that come from you. And just recently, my youngest son was accepted to UC Davis, which is a college that uh you prepped me to get to. So I'm forever thankful for you. So let's kind of get started on this journey, where this isn't about me, but it's more about you. Tell the listeners where you're from and a little bit about who you are.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

I'm from the Chicago area. I was raised by educated parents, but they were the first generation of their family to be educated. Grandparents never went past eighth grade. One was an immigrant from Germany. I was really proud of my grandparents because even though they were not educated, they worked hard and really became fairly successful, but they raised children who became even more successful. And my parents, during the Great Depression, went to college. My mom had to work her way through college, and my dad's father helped him out to get through college and law school. So I watched my parents be quite successful in the community. They were good role models, they had very good ethical values. But the central point of our raising my sisters and I was you must become educated. And there is no if and but about that. You will be a woman. So I then went on to the university and eventually graduate school. And although I was not able to get a really good job right after graduating from college, even though I was like a straight A student, because I was a woman and they were not hiring women to do executive positions or anything that I felt would be a good use of my skills. Even my dad, when I mentioned I wanted to go to law school, he was a lawyer and had a big firm, and he said, Oh, I never hire women. And he discouraged me from going to law school. It was a whole atmosphere of accept your position, do what you can, what you're acceptable in. And you were acceptable in the teaching field, the nursing field, and the secretarial field, and that was just about it. And if you remember Sandra Day O'Connor, when she graduated from law school, she was a Supreme Court Justice. She was a first woman Supreme Court Justice. When she graduated from law school, she tried to get a job in a firm and she got a secretarial job. That's all they would give her. So it was harder for women than young women today realize. I don't think the struggle is very obvious to women today, but it was quite a struggle.

SPEAKER_04 5:05

Get them where they are today.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

To get them where they are, yeah, exactly. So I became an airline hostess, which in those days was quite different than it just became. Let me tell you.

SPEAKER_04 5:18

Can I ask you a question? I don't mean to interrupt you, but can I I when I think back in that day, one time I get this trauma because I sat between these two ladies, and I know the younger generation ain't gonna believe this because it probably won't happen today. But I sat between these two ladies that were chain smokers. They just kept one cigarette after another, right? On the airplane. Can you imagine that?

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Oh, yeah, because I lived it there was smoking area and non-smoking area, but still the smoke filtered in. And but the rules for being a sturdus algae are unbelievable, were unbelievable in those days. You had to wear a girdle and they checked to see you had a girdle on. Of course you couldn't be married, and they gave you a lie detector test before you were able to get the job about asking questions about have you ever used drugs, have you ever been pregnant, things like that. And we couldn't have our hair touch our collar, couldn't wear pierced ears, we couldn't be over a certain weight, and they gave us the weight that we could be. And if we went over that weight, then our weight was published in the flight, in a pre-flight room. So everybody could see that we were overweight, and then we had if we didn't lose the weight, then we would be furloughed. So it was a different world. And oh, of course, you had to retire when you were 30. Wow, all that changed in the 70s when there was a lawsuit brought by women, but that was a very unique.

SPEAKER_04 6:52

Can you tell us kind of what years was that?

SPEAKER_00 6:54

That was 1966, and then I only did it for a year, and I flew from Miami out to San Francisco. And I when I saw San Francisco, I had been here as a kid, but I didn't really understand or appreciate the city and their surroundings. And when I saw it as a more of an adult, I thought, this is a great place to be. And then I found a boyfriend and out in San Francisco. So I moved from where the airline was based to San Francisco. And then I started graduate school, and I was lucky enough that my dad paid for it.

SPEAKER_04 7:29

Very good.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

So a secondary credential, a reading specialist credential, and an MA in education. And that led me to be at Sacramento City College as a reading specialist and uh developmental education educator.

SPEAKER_04 7:47

Very good. And that's where I met you.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Yeah. Oh, and in the meantime, I had four four children, twelve sons.

SPEAKER_04 7:54

Oh, just a little thing. Just oh no, by the way, and I popped out four children during that time.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Yeah. Those boys, and you know them.

SPEAKER_04 8:06

They're beautiful, beautiful human beings.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

And and they're all smart, and I just love them to death. But three of them live far away, one lives locally, so that's I interact with him and his family quite a bit.

SPEAKER_04 8:20

Any grandkids?

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Yeah, five grandchildren.

SPEAKER_04 8:23

Whoa.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Two boys and three girls.

SPEAKER_04 8:26

Okay, so you can have your own class right now, huh?

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Yeah, well, I picked one of them up from school every Wednesday, and I read, read, read to her, Algie. And she asks the greatest questions.

SPEAKER_04 8:38

So yes, I can only imagine, Linda. And so out of all of that with the kids and the whole journey from Chicago all the way to San Francisco, what's the one thing people should know about your life journey?

SPEAKER_00 8:55

I think I've gone through many struggles. It hasn't been easy, up and down, some of it painful. Some of it I'm still learning. Learning doesn't stop when you're 82. I think I maintained a sense of strength, inner strength throughout that, knowing I didn't have a lot of self-confidence, but I knew that I could overcome the struggle. So I just kept believing I could do that.

SPEAKER_04 9:30

Very good. Some people call that faith.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Yeah, I guess it is faith.

SPEAKER_04 9:36

So uh tell us what's the season of life that shaped you the most?

SPEAKER_00 9:42

You mean the age period?

SPEAKER_04 9:44

Well, no, not necessarily age, but just it could be an age, it could be a season, a time period that you went through in life that helped shape you the most.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

If I go back far in my life, I'm gonna go back to when I was 13 and 14. I was very ill, and uh they didn't know what was wrong with me. I had pneumonia and all kinds of things, and I was in the hospital for a month. They isolated me in the hospital, so I was all alone. Everybody had to wear a mask when they came in, and it was scary and lonely, but I got through it, and I think that shaped me a lot because it made me feel like I am strong enough to survive this, so then I can survive other things. So then, skip forward many years to my junior year of college, I was raised in a very strict, conservative Midwestern family that had very narrow values about how you should behave in the world. So that was constrict, very constricting. And then I convinced my parents that they should send me to the University of Vienna in Austria, my junior year of college. So here I was, thousands of miles away from my parents. And in those days, you couldn't even call. You had to go to the post office and make an appointment to call home. So I couldn't call my parents. I could send letters, it took two weeks to get there, or maybe a week. And so I was free. And there are a bunch of emergence there, and and oh my gosh, we just had the best time we did a year after adventure, doing things my parents never would have given me permission to do. Go into behind the iron curtain and go to East Berlin, checkpoint Charlie, and photographs when we weren't supposed to take photographs. It was crazy. So, and then we drove from four of us drove in a VW bug from Vienna all the way to Athens. And at that time, we had to go through Yugoslavia, which was a communist country. So we and then Albania wouldn't even allow Americans in. So we had to go up and around Albania and get it to get into Greece. So that was really an adventure, too. A lot of memory, but also growth. That's it, it widened my perspective, let me see other cultures, it let me learn from other cultures, learn from other people, and that was a very formative season of my life.

SPEAKER_04 12:28

Very good. That it reminds me of the eagle in my background, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:33

I used to tell the youth about the chicken and the eagle story, right? And it sounds as if you were on the barnyard and you were that chicken, right? And then when you were able to set free, you're able to see life from a different perspective beyond what you were being programmed to be. So kudos to you. It's been great learning all about you, Linda, but it's time for that question, right? Based on all you live through, what are the three keys to life? If you had to go all the way back to

What Are Your Three Keys to Life?

SPEAKER_04 13:05

yourself and look at yourself and say, look here, little girl, you need to understand these three things on this journey of life that you've already gone through. These three things are the keys to life. What would they be? And we'll start with the first one.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

I'm conflicted about answering this because as a kid, I wouldn't have listened to my advice. So it's almost like I feel like you waste your time as a parent telling your kids what the keys to life are because they don't want to hear it. And I think learning happens through experience and watching others.

SPEAKER_04 13:55

So let me ask you this then. So understanding that, right? You say experience is a good teacher. Correct? You've had lots of experiences. You're even a teacher. Right? So you've learned a lot of lessons on this plain cult life. Right? And not that you would have the same mindset when you go to yourself at 15, but you're going back to yourself mindset at a person well over 60 years old that have experienced all this life, and saying, hey, based on my experience, you need to understand these three things.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Well, I wrote out a bunch of answers to this. And what I found when I was writing these answers is that there's so much that I would say that I could hardly boil it down. So I made three general keys.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Very good.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Have about 25 subcategories. But the first key is, in my opinion, to keep an active mind. So what I mean by that is not necessarily go to college, but to keep your mind curious, keep your mind open to new perspectives and seek information that you can rely on.

SPEAKER_04 15:20

And why is that key important?

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Because if you don't learn as you go through life, you get stuck. You get stuck in a just a stale place. I would think it would make you unhappy to be stuck in a stale place.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

I've seen people stuck in a stale place and unhappy. Yeah, that does make sense.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

Yeah. And plus I think it's at the height of egotism to think that you know it all. You don't have to listen to other people. And I think in this time that we're in where people aren't talking to each other enough, that we need to talk to even those we disagree with and listen deeply to what they why they believe what they believe.

SPEAKER_04 16:14

Or that statement which what she once said in class. I'm gonna bring back class now. She mentioned seek to understand versus being understood.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Right. Seek to understand. Yeah, seek to understand with compassion.

SPEAKER_04 16:29

Very well stated.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Not always easy. And and and putting yourself in other people's place, living with empathy and compassion are things that I didn't understand as a kid. And the older I got, the more I got that.

SPEAKER_04 16:48

Very good. And I know you said you got a list of 24, but let's just start with another one.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Well, okay, let me look at my list here. What am I gonna pick from? Develop a tolerance for differences.

SPEAKER_04 17:01

Why is that important to develop a tolerance for difference?

SPEAKER_00 17:06

I think it's our responsibility as human beings to try to love others. And I don't mean be in love with, but I mean love them in a way that honors their humanity and dignity. And you can't do that if you're intolerant of what they look like, what they say, and what they do. You cannot like what they do and not like what they say and disagree with them, but I think it's important to still tolerate their freedom to do that, to express themselves. Sometimes it's hard, but sometimes there's people in today that I don't particularly respect. And I don't want to dislike them. So I need to listen and then have compassion, compassionate curiosity.

SPEAKER_04 18:10

Very well stated, especially in today's society, right? It reminds me of a time with me and my younger son. He was playing with one of his friends, and we'll just call him John, right? And and after him and my son got the plan, I mentioned, oh John, I love you. You get little kid, right? And then later on, my son in this infamous wisdom said, Dad, you met just met John. How can you love him? And I had to look at him and I said, Because I am love. I'm just giving him what I am, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 18:43

So it doesn't matter if I met Johnny yesterday. Johnny's in my presence.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

I think one of the keys to life is to put love at the center. And from that radiates many things. So having a kindness, loving kindness attitude toward others radiates from the center of love.

SPEAKER_04 19:06

Very good. I know we're asking you these questions, but I have to share this one with you. When I'm downtown walking, some people, people are different. Talking about tolerance, right? And so in my creative wisdom, it's like I'll walk up and there'll be a couple of ladies walking and they'll come face to face with me. And I'll say, excuse me, ladies, can you do me a favor? And some of them will go, it depends. And I just look at them and I say, Yeah, just stay beautiful. Okay. And then he laugh, right? They laugh, thank you. Oh, and then I ask, How come I didn't get this in the beginning of our conversation? Did they teach you danger, stranger? I don't think that the problem is the world. I think the problem's in us and how we've been programmed.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

And I think one of the th ways when to keep an active mind is to recognize and question how you've been programmed, and to question authority and to keep searching for truth.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

That is correct. Why search for truth?

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Truth search for your truth. Your truth might not be the same as another truth, but search for truth. But then, in my opinion, there is objective truth. And there's too much of pretending in the world today, and too much untruth that's going on. And there are ways to search for truth through certain websites, certain factual information, and to always question authority and question what people in power are doing. I think it's really critical, particularly now.

SPEAKER_04 20:54

So just taking another little U-turn, right? Kind of like what mistakes would you help your younger self avoid?

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Well, I made a mistake in one of my marriages. And however, that mistake had some good parts to it too. So I think one of the reasons I married this person is that I was felt very compassionate toward him and knew he had some problems and I was gonna solve the problems and etc. So I think what I did was I didn't have good enough boundaries, and it got me in trouble. You know, I believe in compassion, but sometimes, like one of my ministers told me, you can there's compassion and then there's doormat compassion. And doormat compassion means that you don't have the right kind of compassion, you are being used in and boundary open heart, but. Strong boundaries.

SPEAKER_04 22:02

So a lot of people say the younger generation has gone astray. Right. And in our current generation, we somehow systematically keep the younger generation and the older generation separated. So why do you think the younger people are struggling today?

SPEAKER_00 22:23

I don't, I don't really have enough knowledge of what younger people are doing because I'm in not many young people come into 80-year-old people's lives. So I can only guess. And I can guess through one of my sons is an anthropologist, an anthropology professor, and he teaches a class called digital detox. And according to him, I get a lot of information from him. There is so much reliance on social media and so much texting with your parents and texting with your friends. And I think that there's too much reliance on what other people think of you, what you are thinking for yourself. And I think that's an unhealthy place to be. Oh, that's a beautiful statement. That's exactly what's happening today. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 23:37

So what do you what is one thing you think is misunderstood between the generations?

SPEAKER_00 23:43

As you age, you get a feeling of people dismissing your value because you're so I think that actually is misunderstood that young people need to talk to older people more. And I include my grandchildren in that too, because the young ones engage with me really a lot. And the older they get, like they hit nine, ten, and then teenage years, you don't seem to have much value to them. But I think it's really valuable for people to exchange their history with younger people. I've actually started a project in this retirement home where I live called Living History. And I've recruited professors from local universities who are history professors. In their fall semester, they're starting a class where it's going to be oral history. And what they're going to do is come and interview residents at this retirement home that I live in. And we have residents here who live through World War II in Europe, who lived through their parents being taken away to camps in Germany, and then people who live through the women's movement, those gay rights movements, the civil rights movement. So there's a lot to learn from the older people. And I'm hoping that this kind of exchange will help in that area.

SPEAKER_04 25:16

This is one of the reasons why we're having this conversation. It's gathering this wisdom from those who walk the path before us, right? And valuing that wisdom because it might not be a reality today, right? And as I sometimes tell people, you might have a concept when I say the stove is hot, but if you never touched a stove, you'll have a concept. But the moment you touch the stove, you'll have a new concept for hot.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Right.

SPEAKER_04 25:46

Because feelings and emotions are equipped with it, right? So now we're gonna script it to it. What we call rapid wisdom as we wrap down the conversation, right? What uh one daily habit you think saved you?

SPEAKER_00 26:02

I'm a big believer in exercise, Algae. It saved me in physical body, an active body is part of my three keys to life. I walk almost five miles a day, I work out on a war throwing machine, I do yoga and tai chi. Uh so I'm pretty active, and I think that's a real key to having a successful old age, anyway. And I see people in this home who have not had that.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

So, okay, what was the original question?

SPEAKER_04 26:41

No, you've answered it. Staying active is a very key. I remember this gentleman telling me, he said, My my dad said I'm 80 years old, and as long as I keep moving, they can't put dirt on me, right? So I'm like, Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Stipping and dancing and and singing, and you know, and being joyful. I had a friend who used to say, Grow until you go. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:06

So, one the what's one belief you had to let go?

SPEAKER_00 27:11

I had to let go of the goal is to do it completely right and be perfect. And I had to completely let go of that and know that I will never be perfect, and I will never do it completely right, and there's always an opportunity to try it again.

SPEAKER_04 27:29

What's one truth you would love to pass down?

SPEAKER_00 27:34

When there's a choice, choose kindness.

SPEAKER_04 27:39

Above all things, be kind.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:42

So my last question, but what does success really mean to you today? No it was different when you were 15, 20, 30. What does it mean to you today?

SPEAKER_00 27:58

It means to me to be content with what you have and not be yearning for what you don't have, and to appreciate the beauty around you, and to learn to have gratitude for all that came before you, that you received with grace because it was given to you without asking. Appreciate the beauty, help others and contribute to the common good. I think all of those things help make a content person. Of course, you have to have enough money to live and live to a standard that doesn't make you feel like you're deprived. But certainly being a billionaire is not what I would call a search for contentment. So it would be accomplish the goals that you would like to accomplish and be content with all the wonderful things that you have and have received in life.

SPEAKER_04 29:13

Very good. Linda Klein, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. This has been a very powerful moment. I know you were talking about some of the things that you have going on still after all these years. If you want to help us share how we can help support you or how we can stay connected with you, if you feel free to share that information, you can go ahead and do so. But if not, any final message to the younger generation.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

A very pregnant pause here. My final message has really all been said, but seek out people like Algie and find people who are interested in others, appreciative of others, learn to communicate with them in a way that makes them feel they are valuable and help others along the road.

SPEAKER_04 30:11

Thank you so much, Linda. And thank you, audience. Thank you for listening to The Keys of Life. I hope it blessed you. Please subscribe, share, and leave a review. Remember, your daily decisions build your destiny. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, keep living with purpose, and above all things, keep the faith.

SPEAKER_03 30:34

Every conversation leaves us with another key. Maybe today's story answered a question you've carried for years, or maybe it planted one for you to think about today before our next conversation. Ask yourself, if you could place three keys into the hands of your 15-year-old self, what would they be? And then ask someone who's lived just a little longer than you.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

You just might discover the treasure you've been searching for has been living right next door all along. I'm Al Jim Mosley.

SPEAKER_03 31:14

Thank you for joining me on The Keys to Life. Where every scar tells a story, every wrinkle holds a weapon, and every human life reminds us that somebody, until next time, keep unlocking life's greatest treasures, one treasured key.