Word Prisms

I believe one of the secrets to retirement is self-discipline. We suddenly return to a life more in common with children than other adults especially if we are no longer required to work to live. Suddenly our time is our own.  After my dad retired, he and my mom built an addition to their cabin. The project took them over a year of constant labour using blueprints designed by my brother who’d just completed a degree in architecture. That design required that the roof be supported by single, one and a half story beam. Can you imagine?  First, they had to find suitable tree in the forest. Then, they would have had to cut it down, delimbed it, peeled the bark off and varnished it. But, the hard part would have been erecting this huge log, held it in place, and then secured it in place.  He and my mom couldn’t have done that on their own but who else could have helped? Maybe my sister, brother, and his wife. I’m embarrassed not to know. There was no timeline or expectation of...

  I had a conversation with a friend about jobs and meaning and, without one, you can’t have the other. And so, I wondered, is this true? And, of course, I generalized that even further to wonder if, without purpose, can life have meaning? I posed a version of this question to my wife and she replied, I’m not talking about it.    But my friend was so passionate, it was difficult to ignore. He’s in the oil industry and he’s seen many of his friends lose their jobs. My daughter was in the oil industry. She made a lot of money for a young woman her age, less that her male counterparts, but still a lot.    My friend has three houses, each worth more than one of mine, so I figured, unless the friends he was talking about were young like my daughter, they would have accumulated a considerable sum of money and capital. Certainly, more than I, as a teacher, had done.   He and I are the same age. I’m retired. I haven’t lost my meaning. Does he fear doing the same sh...