Life after Work

Most people think retirement is life after work. My experience suggests something else is at play.

First, life is always with you unless it isn't – that is dead. Blunt I know. But it is the truth, isn't it? Life is to be lived. If it is avoided life is diminished. The possibilities shrink. The hope for something in the future fades away. Joy ebbs. Laughter becomes a little less present.

So, on the one hand we have life, on the other death. Always has been that way. Basic facts of existence. With or without you.

So it is up to you, and to me, to live while we are alive. Make the most of the possibilities, the potentials.

After fifty years of work or so, most people retire. They cease work. At least that’s what we say, but a more accurate statement is, they cease working for financial remuneration. They live off of their savings or pension plans. They simplify living arrangements to lower costs and avoid expenses that aren't planned.

Retirement does not mean the absence of work, however. There is plenty of work. Chores pop to mind. Those are the things we have to do to survive. Want to eat? Then you have to first buy the food, then prepare it, eat it, and clean up after all of those activities. Those are chores. Pleasant ones, perhaps, but chores nonetheless.

So to sleeping arrangements. Beds are good for a night’s rest. Better if they are freshly made and kept so. Therefore laundry and bed keeping tasks exist. We do them as a daily routine.

Same for clothing. We wear clothes to hide our bodies from public view (polite society, you know!) and of course we wear clothes to keep warm, stylish, healthy, and a host of other reasons. All clothing needs cleaning, care, mending or replacement. Just the shopping for clothing is a chore. But all the other tasks are as well.

And cleaning the apartment or home. Getting the car washed or doing it myself.

There are other chores certainly. Preparing and paying taxes is a chore. Arranging for service and merchandise and then paying for them is another chore. Paying bills and balancing the checkbook. Lots of activities to keep us busy.

There are activities we do because we are interested in them, or wish to contribute something special to our surroundings. The community soul needs to be fed. Social activities abound in most towns and cities. So too are interest areas like charitable institutions, the arts, education, health and medical care for others. Getting involved in a church community is a major commitment for many people. I include our homestead in that commitment. There are other groups and organizations that beg for our involvement. We donate time and energy to several organizations with community missions.

This work speaks to a personal mission we have for the self. We don’t get paid for it because we don’t expect it, need it, or really deserve it. We do these things because they give dimension to our lives. They mean something very special to us.

My career was long and varied and mostly enjoyable. I was paid well throughout. It paid for college educations for the kids. It provided travel and vacation forays that expanded the minds of the family.

Post career I still do work. But now it is because I need to for entirely different reasons. In retirement I can do what I really want to do with my time. And that’s OK. It fulfills me.

And I’m pretty certain that’s what we would call doing a living rather than making a living.

Works for me!

February 19, 2015