Horsin' around
Don Coldsmith, Syndicated Columnist
Monday, July 28, 2008
Every few days, or almost so, it seems, somebody will ask me how I’m enjoying retirement. I was astounded the first time it happened, because I had no idea that anyone would think I was retired. I didn’t think so. I had changed jobs, yes, but it was a career move, a vocational change, to give me a better position for one of the jobs I was already doing.
Maybe the hardest people to convince are people I know who ARE retired. Somebody asks me about it: (“Are you keeping busy?”) I’ll tell him I still have a full time job and he’ll chuckle and say something like “Yep, we’re busier than when we were working, aren’t we?” I don’t try to convince him, because he’s not listening anyway.
Or there might be a younger person. One of those actually argued with me in the supermarket a while back. “Of COURSE you’re retired. You closed your office.” Well, yes, but I still raise some cattle, BESIDES my full time job. “Oh! Who are you workin’ for?” he asked.
My writing career, I told him.
He laughed. “Oh, yeah, THAT,” he said.
I considered explaining to him, but I didn’t. To him, it’s not a real job, just something to do that’s cute and fun.
Well, it IS fun. I wouldn’t work very long at anything if I wasn’t enjoying it. I’ve worked at a lot of jobs and quit a couple of them when they weren’t much fun anymore. I must say, I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve ever done, from YMCA youth work to taxidermy to gunsmithing to preaching in a Congregational church to driving a mule in the army. (Probably being shot at by Japanese in WWII was not my favorite job of all, though). The preaching was for one year. They knew I wasn’t a real minister, but I had quite a bit of public speaking experience and they had a pretty good parsonage and needed a preacher pretty badly, I needed a place to live pretty badly, so we worked out a deal.
My dad, who was a Methodist minister, once said that he didn’t “go along with all that retirement foolishness.” He never did, really. After he officially retired, he served a small church for another 20 years or so. He had preached a “pretty good sermon” one of his church members told me, the Sunday before his death on a Friday, at age 86. We found an unfinished sermon on his desk. He’d been researching and writing new material for the next Sunday.
I think he never considered retiring, because he was still having fun, enjoying what he did. Why would he want to retire? He was doing what he wanted already. He had a lot of other interests, though. He gardened on a big scale. His doctor once advised him to give up some of his activities, so he chose Rotary Club to give up. He still attended, but as a visitor instead of a member.
So, maybe some of my dad has rubbed off on me. I don’t see any time ahead when I would retire, unless I can’t put two words together and have them make sense. Why should I, if I’m having fun at what I do? Maybe, even, doing some good.
We were down along the Mexican border one time and there was some sort of a convention of “senior citizens,” (an ugly expression). The marquee outside read “Welcome Retirados.” Well, okay. If and when I’m ready, I wouldn’t mind being a RETIRADO, if I didn’t have to go to the convention. “Retirado” has pizzazz!
I guess nobody really understands a writer or his job, even writers. Maybe especially writers. And writers ARE a little strange. I once mentioned that fact to a writer friend in Detroit and he agreed, but with another comment. “Let’s face it, Don. We WORK at it.”
See you down the road.
Author and columnist Don Coldsmith lives in Emporia.