I saw a retired friend tonight who commented on the fact that I had posted few intriguing photos lately on my Facebook page. I told her I guessed retirement was just keeping me too busy. She said to me what is becoming a familiar refrain: "We are so busy now (that we're retired); it makes you wonder how we ever managed before!"
Retired people provide various explanations for this common phenomenon; one is from Andrei Codrescu, whom I quoted last fall: "Hundreds of jobs that you never did when you had a more or less regular job are waiting patiently for you to retire. And the minute you do, they pounce on you." He also said a job is like a bucketful of excuses, and when you retire you no longer have that bucket.
While what he said is true, I've come up with another explanation.
When I was working, I gave a dreadful number of things a lick and a promise. Correspondence, filing, keeping up friendships, household jobs, and so many other things. I crossed them off my To-Do list as "Done," but they weren't.
Now, my list says I'm doing the same tasks as before, but I'm taking a lot longer to do them. That's not a bad thing.
In my closet, I'm not just sticking things on shelves; I'm rethinking our storage system so that there's a logic behind where things are put. Instead of crossing lost friends off my Christmas card list, I tracked down some of them and wrote them letters. I finally got rid of the dinnerware my husband hated and bought an attractive, functional set.
It is true that some tasks are still getting a lick and a promise (filing!). Some tasks (not filing!) deserve only a lick and a promise. But many tasks are worthy of much more than I have given them for the past twenty years. So I'm trying to do that, and the result is that I look busy even though I haven't added a single task to my list. But that's not bad! When I eventually choose new activities, when I consider adding things to my schedule, I want to factor in this good aspect of retirement.
Retired people provide various explanations for this common phenomenon; one is from Andrei Codrescu, whom I quoted last fall: "Hundreds of jobs that you never did when you had a more or less regular job are waiting patiently for you to retire. And the minute you do, they pounce on you." He also said a job is like a bucketful of excuses, and when you retire you no longer have that bucket.
While what he said is true, I've come up with another explanation.
When I was working, I gave a dreadful number of things a lick and a promise. Correspondence, filing, keeping up friendships, household jobs, and so many other things. I crossed them off my To-Do list as "Done," but they weren't.
Now, my list says I'm doing the same tasks as before, but I'm taking a lot longer to do them. That's not a bad thing.
In my closet, I'm not just sticking things on shelves; I'm rethinking our storage system so that there's a logic behind where things are put. Instead of crossing lost friends off my Christmas card list, I tracked down some of them and wrote them letters. I finally got rid of the dinnerware my husband hated and bought an attractive, functional set.
It is true that some tasks are still getting a lick and a promise (filing!). Some tasks (not filing!) deserve only a lick and a promise. But many tasks are worthy of much more than I have given them for the past twenty years. So I'm trying to do that, and the result is that I look busy even though I haven't added a single task to my list. But that's not bad! When I eventually choose new activities, when I consider adding things to my schedule, I want to factor in this good aspect of retirement.
No comments:
Post a Comment