Is Retirement a Dream or a Nightmare?
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 41 seconds
Richard W. Brown
A New Day, A New Year
A New Journey
On January 2, 2019, for the first time in my adult life, I had neither work nor school to do today. Retirement is such a strange word. As a friend said to me, he did not retire; he retired the car. The first time I heard it, I laughed. Today, I am unsure if new tires are needed. My life’s work has been to repair the world—Tikun Olam.
I did not know that word as a child and even as a young adult. When I married the love of my life in 1975, she helped me find a spiritual home in Judaism. Finding a spiritual home has helped me gain focus on my life and meaning to my work.
So today – the first workday of 2019 – I find myself passionate about repairing the world but with no place to go or structure to my day. I am supposed to be available to my former employer – Monarch Housing Associates – for January and February. But no one has defined what “available” means, and the best advice is maybe four or five days. So I am on hold.
What I do know is I am not ready to give up my life’s work. So I do what I had done since November of last year when Monarch’s leadership change was announced – I look for work. I have never looked for a job in many ways, and the work to repair the world has always led me to a position where I could hang my hat.
I reach out to former colleagues, look online, make calls and pray.
Being just shy of seventy and in good health, I am open to volunteer or paid positions. But I know to help ensure my future and pay my bills, I need paid work this year and maybe into 2020.
Is retirement a dream or a nightmare?
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After almost 48 years, I recently lost my wife, Jan Lilien. Like The Little Prince, Jan and I believed that “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.” This blog is a collection of my random thoughts on love, grief, life, and all things considered.
