This may raise a smile! James Woodward thinking about retirement…. well in a theoretical sense you understand! I have to speak at a leveson Centre conference about my aspirations relating to retirement and write to ask for any advice via this page.
I remember one observation about people who read autobiography. Those who read you are not saying ‘Tell me about you’ – rather they are saying ‘Tell me about me using you as a mirror!’
What does retirement look like from this angle? A person in their 40s with at least 25 useful working life left in them? Here are some random thoughts ;
- Most of our life is an extraordinary combination of accidents and idiosyncracies
- How do we decide what is important – our vocations, philosophies, passages and passions?
- Does life control us or do we control life?
- How much choice might I have over this second stage of my life?
- What hope is there for being less busy?
- How do we cope with whatever comes?
- Transitions are important!
- Good health is grace as well as a matter of works!
- We all need to take longer walks!
- How do we view our end? Our death? How are we to prepare for it?
- Few things tell less about a person’s being and outlook than her or his age!
- What is our vocation beyond the work role?
- How can we recover dailiness and ordinariness in our lives?
- Where might new friendships be made?
- What is our community – the place or places where we belong?
- What do we live for beyond the self – what about our sense of injustice?
If you would like to come to the conference have a look at our web page;
or help me to refine my thinking :
What does retirement mean to you?????
Love the picture – reminds me of a husband of mine. Is it the horse, the glass of wine or the reading of the book that strikes the likeness? You tell me.
One observation offered to refine your thinking just a miniscule amount, if you think you can “control life”, you have not lived long enough to retire.