Worked into the tapestry of life is work itself, it’s inseparable, in fact it will loosen and destroy the fabric of life in its absence the way pests get into the woodwork or wardrobe and ruin you with holes. Work is the glue that keeps us intact, whether you like it or not. Ask a man who’s retired what he plans to do next and watch the fear in his eyes, he knows what’s next.
Share this:
Categories: musings
Bill Pearse 
I respectfully disagree.
Although I’m still a couple of years from retirement, I have no doubt that my life when I reach that point will have much more meaning and value for me than the last 30 years have. Maybe others will disagree, but what others think won’t matter to me. 😉 Ask me what I will do in retirement and what is next and my eyes will light up with the joy of the thought.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s wonderful! I hope, and hope I feel the same. It’s a paradigm shift, I’m playing with the idea our work and identity are interdependent. And that’s sad or great depending on how you feel about your work, and reason to feel good about it…but others can compartmentalism…I’m learning I can’t. Glad I’m digging my work, all that to say.
LikeLike
A composite of many conversations with my wife over the years:
Wife: How was work today?
Me: Miserable. I don’t like my job. Why do you insist that i should talk about it when I get home?
Wife: How can I know you if you don’t talk to me about what you do during the day?
Me: My job is not who I am, it is what I do during the day to provide for you and for our kids.
Over the years she has stopped asking as much, but she still does occasionally. And less occasionally, I have something to say about my job. Lately, I just look at her and ask “Can I quit now?”
The divide between my job and what I am in my soul has continued to grow over the years. What defines me, what paints the picture of who I am, are the things I do in the evenings and on weekends and on vacations.
So, consider me on the “sad” side of your equation. As the divide has grown, the job has sucked more and more energy out of me, leaving me less able to do those things I enjoy. Hence, the countdown to retirement.
If you have found work you enjoy that fulfills you, I applaud you for that. It is a rare thing.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wow, Mark thanks for this, for sharing…it’s similar in a way I think to what I experienced when I quit my last job. This is campfire beer bottle talk. When you come up to the Oregon coast.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It most definitely is campfire beer bottle talk. I look forward to it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, I do agree with William. We had seven snow days this year and, even with dropping my son Garrett off at daycare (presumably, so I could get things done around the house… which did happen, to a degree), I went a little nuts. I don’t necessarily love getting up early and going to work ever day, but when I don’t have the routine and the structure, I go all to hell. Motivating myself to exercise, eat healthfully, even just be productive in minor ways was nigh impossible next to cramming it all in between work and sleep.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is that, he routine. I was a stay at home dad for a year and a half, nowhere else to “go” work wise, and that was deeply odd. Many feel differently I’m sure. Happy Friday Justin! Enjoy your time off, ha!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great poster. There’s a man who has a cut of the means of production!
LikeLike
I took that picture of the poster in Prague. I wish I owned it.
LikeLike
I’ve known many men like that, for whom early retirement -held up as a golden chalice of opportunity – becomes a curse and often a direct route to slow deterioration.
Here’s to working a bit, playing a bit right up until we kick that proverbial bucket 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I suppose it depends. If you’re working, and you enjoy the work, and you don’t report to a jerk then yes, why not continue to work if you can. As for retirement, if you can’t find something to do you’re not working at it very hard. All the new things to learn, all the new places to explore or old ones to revisit, all the household projects, all the hobbies you never had enough time for, all the volunteer opportunities when you’re minded to give something back – I wish I had even more retirement time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like your attitude and approach to retirement Dave. You sound like you’re in a very good place. I hope you and your wife have more travel planned, more places to use your camera and your sensibility. Yes, I feel kind of sorry for people who get to retirement and realize they haven’t got much more to do or care about. I’m doing my best to really love my work and stick to work that feeds me vs. the other way around.
LikeLiked by 1 person
In my retirement, I’m planning to market indolence.
LikeLiked by 1 person
i think for a time, and for some, their work is so much of their identity. i am looking forward to my retirement as an opening to my next chapter and who knows what it will bring?
LikeLike
How close are you to your retirement Beth?
LikeLike
i think i still have a lot of time to go until i reach that point, but i may find a way earlier, you never know what life may bring )
LikeLike
You never know and I like that.
LikeLike
I think this post illustrates how much we need to live in the present and be who we want to be, not what our jobs define us to be. Though…I’ve been trying to follow my dreams for awhile, I don’t intend on giving up. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi sageleaf and thanks for recently following my blog, for reading and sharing your thoughts here…the dream-following is a theme we all share and I think I could riff off that the rest of my life and never run out of things to write about. I guess that’s me following my dream, there…thanks for following my blog, and your dreams…cheers friend. Bill
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your posting schedule has been ramping up at the same time mine has been ramping down. I want to keep pace at least with the reading part, but I’m having a hard time of it. Not to mention I can’t seem to think about anything other than assaults on democracy, and whatnot. It occupies what little mental power I have at the end of the day, or on the drive home, or while I’m at work. Just wanted to pop in and say ahoy thar, matey. Also, don’t retire.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey matey thanks for popping in and don’t feel an onus to read or comment…though I appreciate it…there’s this odd balance you know between doing it for oneself and for others, an interplay I will never understand fully, but I need to do it for now. I think about your John Lennon reference from earlier in the week; it’s just good to have some social connection here and meet people as we do…fuels my writing through your influence, thanks. Need to do this around a campfire some day, though.
LikeLike
Maybe you’re right but I don’t see it. Work is sucking my soul out of my body. What’s left of it, that is. I’d argue that purpose is the glue. But work is just…work.
LikeLike
Purpose is good, yes. Sorry to hear about your work: do you ever think about making a change? Or is that too much? I understand that. Sometimes better, the devil you know.
LikeLike