Thursday, January 15, 2004

Retirement or My Time? A piece appears today in the Washington Post on the concept of My Time, as opposed to Retirement. Seems that retired folks tend to go one of two ways: they stop working, stay home, and seethe with resentment about feeling replaced, overlooked, useless, no longer valued; OR they enter the zone of My Time. Here's a quote from the article, by Abigail Trafford: My Time comes when the primary tasks of adulthood have been completed, for better or for worse. Children have been raised. Marriages have been made -- and remade. Career goals have been achieved -- or not. You've paid the mortgage, filled out your résumé. And then what?    It could be anything. Look around. You see them everywhere: two women of a certain age walking the Appalachian Trail, a group of men with craggy faces lingering over lunch, a graying couple holding hands at the matinee movie or scrambling over the rocks of the Grand Canyon. A sixty-something husband off building houses for his church in Mexico while his wife goes on a poetry retreat.    They are fit, energetic -- engaged and engaging. They have an aura that says: I'm free. I've paid my dues. I can make a difference. If any of you are engaging with life in this fashion, let us hear about it. Here is a link to the full text of Trafford's article. 11:13:20 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 William Howarth. Last update: 2/5/04; 11:48:21 AM.