Don't Stop!

“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
― George Bernard Shaw 

This is not only about playing, but about living.  There is ample evidence to suggest that retirement is not good for the soul - or for life, itself.  Do not delude yourself into believing that retirement will set you free - from your boss, from the commute, from the stress.  It won't.  Rather, retirement will have the opposite effect, that of withdrawing you from a community, from social interaction, from deadlines, from the need to get up at a set time and go about doing something that someone is relying upon.  You may fantasize that that is exactly what you need, peace and quiet, and yet, upon further reflection, you would probably admit to yourself that when you had unlimited time off, you became bored.  And boredom leads to laziness, which leads to lack of interest, which leads to eventual death.  Lack of interest is the worst.  After all, how much golf can you play? You believe that you would never tire of sitting in your sailboat and bobbing on the waves? It's wonderful when you do it in small segments - just like eating chocolate cake: it's delicious at first bite; it's satisfying at the end of the piece of cake; it's beckoning to you to have another piece, then another; and yet, once you realize that there is no one watching you, no one with whom you must share that cake, do you really want to finish it? What about tomorrow, will you want yet another chocolate cake? Perhaps.  Retirement is not quite like a chocolate cake.  Worse - it lasts much longer.  Much longer with nothing to do.  Yes, yes, I know, you've got your hobbies, your grandchildren, your voluminous library.  But have you goals and aspirations?