Retriement, What is That?
Why are we on this planet? What is our purpose? Who decides what our purpose is and how do we accomplish this? I have met so many amazing people in my life and the ones that stick out the most are the ones that have a purpose and are making a difference in the world. But what does it mean to make a difference? There are some that believe they are making a difference but I would argue that point, and they might argue that I am wasting my time and not making a difference either. So, who gets to decide?
In the end, we all have our own view of the world. We all get to decide what matters the most to each of us and we all have our own boundaries and limitations on how much we can handle when trying to make a difference. I don’t believe this life is about collecting more toys and being a consumer, this life is about affecting the world. We come to this life with nothing and we will leave this life with nothing, that I am certain of. In the aftermath of a big storm like Sandy that just hit the NY/NJ area really hard, most who I have spoken with from back east seem very thankful for what they have.
It is a shame that it takes a disaster like Hurricane Sandy to give people perspective. We have become so dependent on the technology that runs out lives, what happens when we don’t have those things? What happens when there is no TV or computer or iPad to keep us occupied and connected? To me it is a metaphor that we lost so many trees during this storm and most of the trees we lost had strong root systems, but we are chipping away at our root system every day. We continue to create lives of isolation and discard our elders to nursing homes and lives of golf, tennis and bridge.
This brings me to my thought for this post, why do we take our wisest resources and put them out to pasture? Why do we put all of our elders into retirement homes and why do they spend all of their time with each other playing golf, tennis and bridge when they could be providing wisdom to future generations? We are so focused on the next “new thing” that we forget that most of what we need to learn already has been learned. I have given retirement a lot of thought and I don’t believe that I will ever retire. I might slow down my work effort but I love what I do and it is part of who I am, so why would I put it in a box just so that I can play more golf and tennis. I am having more fun trying to change the world and that seems so much more empowering than retirement.
‘Til next time ……
Larry Kesslin 