A SENIOR RANT
An Open Letter to Everyone I Know
I may be a pensioner, but I’m NOT retired!
According to my dictionary, “retirement” is the action or fact of leaving one’s job and ceasing to work. Yes, a few years ago I sold my business, one that kept me busy 24/7 and on the road. I loved it.
But once I was financially able to give that up, I had a truckload of stuff I had always wanted to do, see, accomplish, or create without having annoying suppliers and customers and employees soaking up 110% of my time.
Life is good now. Different, but absolutely fabulous. My garden feeds us all year and is a full-time job about eight months of the year. I am a contributing editor with an online magazine, volunteer on community boards, I am a notary public, I am a consultant for a pet products manufacturer, and so much more. In fact, most of us “of a certain age” have very full lives, packed with cool activities.
But this isn’t about what I do. What this is about is the frustrating fact that everyone around me thinks that I, as a “retired person,” have nothing but free time, that I can drop everything and go play or shop or have a glass of wine or get stoned with them at any given moment.
Don’t get me wrong. I love doing all these things. I just don’t have time to do them all, all the time. I am not able to live up to the expectations of my friends, some of whom are indeed retired, as in no longer working.
So, my friends think I’m avoiding them, or cocooning, or just not interested in coming out to play. Or, that I just don’t want to be with them.
How do I explain that my day-to-day schedule is full of actual work? At the end of my third quarter in life, I’m behind the power curve by a long shot and I’m in a hurry to write that memoir, paint those paintings, plant those seeds, harvest and preserve my produce, read the books stacked up next to my sofa.
Friends, please listen to me! I am BUSY! This should not be an affront to you, you who have nothing better to do than play or shop or visit. I applaud you if this is the way you want to finish out your lives. Bravo!
But it’s not the way I roll. My happiness comes from my accomplishments. And your frustration at my full schedule shouldn’t be my problem. Please try to understand that I am NOT retired, that I work full-time, and I’m loving my life.
I will see you on weekends, or evenings, and I will find great happiness being in your company. But just not today. Today I have to work.
Looking back at the definition of “retirement,” — the action or fact of leaving one’s job and ceasing to work — the key phrase here is ceasing to work. Whether or not a person is on someone’s payroll has nothing to do with it.
Friends and family, I’m working full time. Please try to respect this, as you always did when I was officially employed by some corporation or other entity. It’s no different now.
I still love you. But I’m working right now.
Author’s note: Since I “retired” this has been an ongoing issue and I’m fed up with it. Dear readers, please let me know if this is happening to you too, especially all you writers out there. For some reason, most people don’t see writing as an actual job. They don’t understand and I can’t make them understand. It’s a lonely business, but I love it with deep passion. Write on!
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