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| Photo by Mehdi Mirzaie on Unsplash |
Wie geht's?
I wish there was another word for 'retirement'. Those terms like 'third act', 'withdrawal from the workforce', 'retreat' leave me a tad cold. Nor do I like 'semi-retired', 'scaling back', or worst of all - 'downshifting'. Shudder.
The key driver: I need my purpose to remain strong for as long as possible.
If you retire from football, you stop playing at the same intense level, but you keep playing. At age 39, Messi has retired from playing for Argentina, but not his club side. He'll eventually stop that too but will presumably remain an active footballer for some years to come.
I played football into my forties and then loved playing indoor football, and fun football after work on Fridays. After a while, my knees couldn't handle too much of that. These days, exercise is down to a brisk walk whenever I get a chance. The point being that my intensity level for football peaked early - aged 19, but I have never actually retired from physical activity - it's just changed as I've aged.
Maybe that's how I need to think about retirement from full-time work; it's a change of intensity (but not a slowing down). A reorientation of priorities.
Maybe it's obvious, I've been thinking about this for a while. I'll turn 70 next year and while I still want to teach and preserve my purpose, maybe it's in a new direction, a new format.
At this point - I don't quite know what that means. Which is a good thing, is it not? The path has not yet revealed itself.
Love and peace - Wozza
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