HI-HO, HI-HO
IT’S OFF TO WORK …
A Widow Bit – Jan. 31, 2010
By Mary Koch

            Like many people, I’m too busy. But just try paring down activities and obligations. It’s like extricating yourself from a vat of molasses – slow going, and a lot sticks with you. A friend, who knows I’m removing myself from various boards and causes, questioned, “But what are you going to DO?”

            “One thing at a time,” I answered, recalling a recent morning when I had inexplicably committed to being in three places at once.

            My primary reason for reducing volunteer activities is that I’m 65 years old. It’s time for me to start getting serious about earning money for my retirement. Frankly, I need to volunteer less and work more.

            Many people in my community think I am retired, despite the mantra I intone frequently: I’m neither rich enough nor old enough to retire. I doubt that writers ever are.

            I was talking recently with a much younger colleague. We work for the same publishing company. Gloomily eyeing my gray hair, he sighed, “I guess I’ll still be working in my 60s, too.”

            In your 70s, if you’re lucky, I thought but did not say. Given current economic and longevity trends, he could still be at it in his 80s. All I know is, I won’t give up working until the day when I can no longer remember the password to start my computer.

            I have a friend, 72, who works full-time at a high-stress job. His younger coworkers do not know his age. If they ask, he answers, “That’s personal.”

            “I hate to think what he’d be like if he weren’t working,” his daughter observed. He, like me, claims he needs the money. Yet we both could live on what we already have by tweaking our lifestyles. It’s not always the money. For some of us, work is life. Work refuels us and then gives us an outlet for all that energy. A closed system.

            A neighbor retired when he was 50, having put in 30 years as a fireman. Two older brothers had died from cancer, both at age 72. My neighbor figured he knew when his number would be up. He attacked retirement with intent, building a log home in the mountains, traveling across the country with his wife in their RV.

            Now living in town, he is an energetic 90-year-old, taking strenuous walks every day. We pondered the irony of his life while sharing a cup of coffee last week – he’s been retired for more years than he worked!

            Another friend, a writer in her 80s, sent me an e-mail invitation to join her for a weekend in sunny California. She’s there working on another book.

            “My tentative motto now,” she wrote, “is go do ‘it’ and, if something unfortunate happens, well, I didn't die in my lounge chair watching TV.”

            She is one of the most consistently happy people I’ve ever known. She’s a role model, too, which is why I’m not taking her up on that weekend in California. Gotta work.