Retirement

I am reminded, almost weekly that I don’t look my age. “So, when are you going to retire,” people will ask. It’s not quite as bad as asking a non-pregnant woman who appears to be in her second trimester when her baby is due, but I can’t help sounding defensive in my reply, “How old do you think I am?” Perhaps they are just making polite conversation, or maybe they are being rather forward in their thinking.  

Personally, I don’t view half-way between fifty and sixty as the age to retire, unless, of course, you hate your job and have enough to live on for several decades. Neither is true for me.

People work past sixty-five for a variety of reasons: a sense of loyalty, they find the work cathartic, they love the job, they need the money, or they need something to do. When my grandparents sold the farm and moved to town Grandpa got a job at a lumberyard for several years. He finally retired at the age of eighty-five. I got a job at the same lumberyard three years later when I was sixteen.

One day we were short-handed, and they called Grandpa to help out. Andrew, as he was known around the yard (I never called him by his first name, not even once), showed me that age is no yardstick of ability. The two of us spent a memorable summer afternoon unloading a train car of lumber by hand. Grandpa laughed at how I struggled to keep pace with him.

His son, my father, passed away before he reached eighty. I hope to pass by that age in good stead. However, I am quite sure I do not want to be unloading train cars at eighty-eight years old, with or without my grandson (alright, maybe just one afternoon). But do I want to be sitting in my office at that age? Probably not, but how will I know when enough is enough?

A friend of mine, who is about ten years older than me, is contemplating retirement. She talks about retiring sometime next year after she has marked a work anniversary. But someone asked her a question the other day that broadened her perspective. “What if you knew your time was limited, would you wait another six months to retire?”

The truth is time on planet Earth is limited for each of us. So now what? It gets kind of confusing. How do you choose to spend your remaining days – work, leisure, or somewhere in between? I know, too many questions and not enough answers right?

For me the answer lies somewhere in the middle.  Work is good for the soul, but all work and no play makes Jack and Jill too dull to fetch anything but ulcers. If you can, find work you enjoy, and if not, find enjoyment in the work you do. Develop a hobby, learn a new language, play a musical instrument (some would say a banjo doesn’t qualify), volunteer, play with children, visit the elderly, read a book, take a walk, live life.

Live a life that has purpose, satisfaction and contentment. That’s what I’m trying to do.  I don’t know when I will retire, but apparently I look old enough.