George went to play 18 holes of golf this morning with his retiree friends. The house is echoing in its own silence. I have lots of space to think. I am retired. I was reminded about the hippie slogan in the late 60s -- turn on, tune in, drop out. The Crackers have a song about that. When the hippies were turning on in Grant Park, and the Yippies were protesting the Democratic Convention, I was with them in spirit - but I was working not far away in an office 9-5. In the 70s, when my son Michael was born, it was not cool to let your new boss know you had a child at home -- they didn't have to hire you if they knew you may be "conflicted" -- work/home balance was unheard of. In the 80's, the lunch time crowd I hung with in Chicago went to places where they played disco music we could dance to while we enjoyed our hamburgers. I still worked in an office 9-5. In the 90's things got better -- people were able to dress casual on Fridays, and bosses understood when you had reasons to stay home a few days each year. I dropped out in the 90's and changed careers; moving to Boston to the non profit world, which was much gentler, calmer and more humane, but I still worked 9-5. For the past ten years I have enjoyed each day that I worked in an office, and as I became older, I was grateful that people were cool, did not discriminate, and accepted me as I am. Many things have changed for the better in my 47 years of working in an office.
So, now it is retired is it? What is that like? I keep thinking of the old hippie thing; turn on, turn in, drop out. Instead of turning on, I'm busy turning off. Off with the outside noise of the world, off with daytime TV (horrors!!) and off with the, lets face it, GRIND of rushing to work every morning. I am tuned in to the world of weather, clouds, birds, flowers, and a HUGE number of options for each day. And I can't help but think, as I enjoy the complete freedom of planning each day, that I have indeed dropped out!
hang loose
Have a great day.
