THE RETIREMENT INTERVIEWS #2

I am interviewing several people around “retirement age” to get their individual opinions about their personal experiences.

MICHAEL

I have known Michael for thirty years. Our relationship grew stronger as we shared our battles when simultaneously going through our divorces and supported each other in that prolonged process. Michael had spent some of his early years traveling and working in Europe. He especially loved his time in Paris where he was able to explore the casual lifestyle of the cafes of the Left Bank. 

Michael is almost exactly five years older than I am. We had long discussed taking a trip together to Paris and talked about spending our almost adjacent birthdays there. We thought about it for when I was 45 and he was 50 and then every five years thereafter.

Michael worked for the state of Wisconsin for 43 years starting out as a counselor for the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation and working his way up to a high level position in the Department of Workforce Development. His focus was on offering productive work opportunities for people with disabilities. His longevity allowed him to feel relatively comfortable financially as he moved into retirement. Michael retired about 7 months ago at the age of 67.

Since retiring, Michael has been active in home improvement projects, regular jogging, meditation, and recently started yoga. Michael is a master potter and has continued to throw on a regular basis seeing this creative outlet as being a likely future focus for him. 

Some of Michael's pottery

He has been volunteering at Second Harvest and is on the board of other non-profits. Michael has been considering some ongoing consulting work in the fields in which he has developed most experience, and has been sought out by groups around the country for his expertise.

Michael has talked about the relief that he has felt in retirement; no longer does he have to deal with the politicking of managing a multi-million dollar budget. Michael feels that in retirement he has been able to free himself from the enmeshed state of always needing to meet the expectations of others. He has been on a journey of discovery, and feels that he is retrieving a personal sense of joy and freedom which had been put on hold in having to function in a high pressure administrative role. This is what he refers to as "a process of unfolding into authentic self."
He keeps busy and maintains a good structure of activities including morning coffee with an informal group of interesting people, and maintaining longstanding friendships with people who help stimulate his mind. Before retiring, Michael was most worried about having too much time on his hands but this has not proved to be a problem.

In reviewing the first months of retirement, Michael noted that he wished that he had taken a celebratory vacation soon after ending his tenure with the State. He has since remedied this deficit by planning a trip for this upcoming summer. He will be flying to Europe with me and we will finally get to explore Paris together.

SCIMP SUMMARY

Michael has maintained strong friendships, some of which date back to the time of his youth; he has expanded his social network and is open to meeting new people at a depthful level. This in turn has added to levels of intellectual curiosity which he pursues often in tandem with his spiritual pathways. His creativity is seen in his home remodeling and in his ceramics work. Michael is one who looks for, and finds meaning in the everyday and has enhanced this in pursuing volunteer work in which he directly helps others. His family is very important to him. Michael has always seemed to excel in taking good care of himself. He jogs, meditates, eats well, and is mindful in his words and actions.

NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN

I have been researching what else is out there in Cyberworld about retirement and thought that it might be a good idea to have some links and references for others to explore beyond my own blog here. This is by no means an exhaustive review but rather a starting point for looking at that which might compliment this.

I have not really vetted these blogs but hope to do some serious perusing in the near future. 

Some other retirement blogs out there:

RetireEarlyLifestyle.com Blog

A Satisfying Journey

Retirement-Only The Beginning

Retirement: Full Time Job

Joe's Retirement Blog (mostly travel)

Kathy's Retirement Blog

A Satisfying Journey

Living Richly In Retirement

Older hood

Sightings Over Sixty

Thrifty At Sixty

The Retirement Cafe: Retirement Planning for the Unwealthy

More information about Retirement:

Mr. Money Mustache (early retirement)

Can I Retire Yet? (mostly financial)

10 Retirement Blogs Worth Reading (more financial)

The Retirement Cafe (compendium of resources)

Dynamic Aging Institute (healthy balance)

THE RETIREMENT INTERVIEWS #1

I am interviewing several people around “retirement age” to get their individual opinions about their personal experiences of retirement.

CHRISTOPHER

I have known Christopher for almost 30 years. We met in a Men’s Group which, like our relationship, has been continuing in some form ever since.

Christopher is 66 years old. He has been a workhorse, a carpenter, and a self-described beast of burden. He is a writer, an artist, a storyteller extraordinaire; he is a renaissance man who has pursued his curiosity through avid reading, meditation, co-counseling leadership, and maintenance of warm friendships all over the country. He has bicycled across America. He is the owner of a housing cooperative, and was the founder of a tofu empire. He has spent extensive periods of time in Hawaii and in Los Angeles but has his roots firmly set in Madison.

Playful Christopher

Christopher - I know him well

Yoga Christopher

Christopher feels that he has been in the process of living his life mindfully and that retirement was not a specific event. He has never worked full time and has often taken several-month-long sojourns. He has some income from the co-op that he owns and continues to nurture, and has recently started to collect a modest social security income. He has always found it preferable to live frugally.

The important things in Christopher’s life have not changed that much, but may have matured over the years. He will often get a dozen books from the library and will read them all. He attends meditation groups and discussion and reading groups. He particularly enjoys exploring the meaning of consciousness. He spends more of his time at his co-op house these days, as that has become his art and creative center as he works toward an exhibit that he is hoping to complete sometime soon. Creativity has always been important to Christopher. He sends beautiful hand painted post cards to friends. He has for years kept incredible journals of thoughts, ideas, sketches, and inspirations. He sees himself as a found-object artist and collagist. He has been designing and building a tree house. He has the talent to find unique ways to produce art and has the skills to make it happen. He has built a community sauna and maintains an extensive garden at his magnum opus - the Red Pine co-op house.

Storytelling Christopher

Meditative Christopher

Creative, adventurous Christopher

To the outside observer Christopher is a tall, powerful, flexible man who can do anything. This week he emptied an overcrowded, damaged room, and dug up and replaced the floor in a harrowing three-day work period that would have killed many of us. However, Christopher notices that his body can no longer do the things that it used to be able to do. His attention is more often drawn to the physical vulnerabilities that have accumulated with age.

Christopher remains optimistic and realistic as he continues to practice compassion and equanimity. He is happy to experience each day as it comes. His family is important to him. He has been a mentor to many over the years. He is a calm and powerful, humble presence.

Christopher at Lake Superior

I sent this bio to Christopher and he responded with the following poem by Rumi:

When I run after what I think I want

my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety;

if I sit in my own place of patience,

what I need flows to me, and without pain.

From this I understand that

what I want also wants me,

is looking for me and attracting me.

There is a great secret here

for anyone who can grasp it…

SCIMP SUMMARY

Christopher continues to cultivate and nourish his friendships and participates in events that feed his mind. His creative focus is prioritized daily. He is involved in intellectual pursuits at any opportunity. He is open to finding new meaning and will not readily accept the expressed norm in his worldview. Although his physical body is not the powerhouse that it used to be, he still loves walking, stretching, traveling, hiking and bicycling.

50 DAYS LEFT

Only 50 days left until my retirement begins. That's seven weeks and only a handful of paychecks!

BUCKET LISTS

Bucket list: the things I gotta do before I kick the bucket. 

It is strange how we keep putting off the important things in life. Sometimes we are left with the regret that we did not nurture a relationship properly, that we were not good enough to another human being. Sometimes there is a place that we have always wanted to go, something that we have always wanted to do. 

Hanalei Beach, Kauai, Hawaii

Sure enough, if we live our lives correctly we will always be doing the thing that we should be doing; but who is that person and who lives that kind of life? I suppose that retirement itself has long been on my bucket list. It remains now as a loosely formulated set of hopes and dreams for the future.

I always thought that I would love to travel the world upon retirement. There are places that I have always wanted to go and magnificent photographs still to be taken. The combination of traveler and photographer has long been translated into my forlorn, lost wish that I could be a National Geographic photographer. 

Instead I have spent my last 30 years working in the mental health field at a hospital. A couple of years ago, I was having dinner in a riad in Morocco. 

Dar Seffarine Riad, Fez, Morocco

Sharing food family style at a large table, I engaged in a conversation with the guy next me, an American who had been living in Australia for many years. I asked him what he did for a living. His response was, “I am retired now. I volunteer at a hospital helping to distract young kids when they are having medical procedures done. I love doing this. It is so meaningful. I feel like I missed my life’s calling.” I asked him what he had done before retirement and he responded, “I was a National Geographic photographer.” We laughed long and hard when I told him my story.

I do have a list of places that I want to go. I maintain Pinterest pages on specific destinations and even have a board entitled “MyTravel Bucket List.” When I was younger I was able to travel freely despite lacking funds. In 1974 I left England with $150 and proceeded to spend the next three years traveling in Germany,  overland to Iran, Afghanistan, and India. 

That's me (on the right) in Varanasi, India, 1978

Certainly I had to find some work along the way but it was a wonderful opportunity to live in some exotic places for extended periods of time. Since those days I have continued to travel. 

Once employed in a full time job I could better afford to travel but was short on vacation time and my journeys had to be packed into three-week blocks here and there. I had always hoped that in retirement I could once again spend periods of months or even years living in new places. As I have grown older it has become harder to travel. Airplane seats are now tighter, and costs are higher. I can no longer sleep in a hammock or in the back of a truck. I need to plan ahead. I am more fearful of being robbed as I have more to lose. I value my life in a different way and carry more fears about my safety and well-being.

I understand that bucket lists are not all about travel. They are also about achievement, fulfillment, trying new activities, spending more time doing the things that give us pleasure, creating calm, and ultimately helping us understand what life is all about at least on a very personal level.