Copyright © Louis Schmier and Atwood Publishing.
Date: Tue 11/23/2004 3:29 AM
Random Thought: Why Do I Have To Wait?
"When I retire, I will _____________(fill in the blank with something
joyful)." If you read the newspapers, with companies going bankrupt and
government taking over corporate pension funds, retirement doesn't appear to
be so much of a guaranteed guarantee, appealing prospect, or blissful
promise as it once was, even if you were a high level manager.
But, why does finding my bliss have to be something in the blessed future?
What got me to thinking about this issue was a brief conversation I had
yesterday in the local hospital's outpatient waiting room as I waited to do
the pre-op paperwork for my biopsy.
"You still out at the university?"
"Yes."
"How many years have you been there?"
"Thirty-seven plus sick leave time."
"You're about at the point to retire, aren't you?"
"I can any time I want."
"You going to?"
"No. They'll have to carry me out if I have my way."
"Why don't you retire?"
"I'm having fun. I wake up with a 'yes' every morning looking forward to
going into class. Why do I stop doing something that I'm happy doing and
where I can make a big difference?"
"That's good," this person sighed. "That's important. Really important.
Going to the garage became a chore, a real heavy chore, for me. It had no
purpose for me except being just check getting work."
I can't tell you how many times I had similar conversations week after
week. When anyone asks me if I am retired or when am I planning to retire
or if I know that I'm "losing money" still teaching, it gets me to wonder
about those supposed wonder years marketed in the slick retirement community
brochures and all those solving "golden years," "the creative age," and "101
Ways to...." books. It gets me to wonder about all those people who so look
forward to retirement that they overlook today.
This is how I look at it. There's a lot of attitude, attitude, attitude in
my attitude.
Why do I have to wait to retire for a life of meaning, personal growth, and
spiritual development? Why can't I find them in a life of teaching?
Why should retirement be the best years of my life? Why isn't now the best
years of my life?
Why should I focus on retirement benefits when the real benefits are in
today's class?
Why should I wait for my retirement years to experience, as one book puts
it, my "creative years" and the time when I awakened my "human potential?"
Why do I have to wait for the retirement years to be imaginative, creative,
productive, and making a difference?
Why is the journey liberating and enriching only after retirement?
Why do I have to endure a sighful "ah me" until I retire to an excited "oh,
boy?"
Why is the good life and a life of goodness something to look forward to
rather than something lived right now?
Why do I have to retire in order to take time for the things that enrich my
inner life?
My answer? I don't. I don't because I don't choose it to be. It's so
much, almost all, attitude, attitude, attitude. This, today, is when I
choose to feel purpose and meaning. This, today, is when I choose to be
filled with fulfillment, happiness, and contentment. This, today, is when I
choose to spin gold. This, today, is when I choose to experience my
creative age. This, today, is when I choose to be adventurous. This,
today, is when I choose to stretch myself, when I choose to have a good
stretch, choose to become more. This, today, is when I choose to be awake to
my potential. This, today, is when I choose to make a difference. All this
choice makes the difference. This, today, is when, as Joseph Campbell might
have said, I choose to follow my bliss.
Before I forget. Let me take this opportunity to wish all my American
friends a most joyous and festive and sumptuous Thanksgiving. And, as you
are about to go into a food coma from a caloric overdose, please remember:
don't eat and drive.
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