The Idea of Retirement Has Stolen Our Inner Magician. Let’s Get It Back!
“We all know that nature abhors a vacuum. The same is true of our imaginations. The Magician makes this principle work for him. Drawing a magic circle, he creates an empty space in which to work his magic. You can think of your goals as providing the boundaries of this inner circle. Within the empty spaces of this circle, your imagination or inner magician works to create the outcomes you desire. On the other hand, if we don’t give our imaginations constructive things to do, they tend to fill up with junk and recycle images of negativity and doubt. It’s up to the Hero to supply the inner Magician with challenging creative demands that will keep it constructively engaged and out of mischief. Because our imaginations abhor a vacuum, they are our best friends or our worst enemies. The true Magician makes her imagination her friend.”
Laurence G. Boldt, “Zen and the Art of Making a Living”
Where is our imagination?
I guess you can tell I like this book since I quoted Mr. Boldt extensively last week. I find it to be one of those “hidden gem” books loaded with “contrarian common-sense” applicable to my purpose (READ: it’s not for everybody) that comes more alive with each reading.
I pondered and meditated on Boldt’s paragraph this morning after allowing myself to do a mental swim in all the junk and crap that is going on around me.
I’ll bet you’ve been there. Perhaps still there. Doing that type of mental swim is never a good idea. It’s really easy to do, isn’t it?
I’m realizing I’m not being very “imaginative” when it comes to filters. How imaginative is it to flip back and forth between Fox News and MSNBC? Which I’ve been guilty of so that I can say that I am “considerate of both sides” of the insanity that they both peddle.
Or to scan through the Denver Post over my oatmeal fully aware that I’ve just wasted 30 minutes swimming in more junk.
As I wrote about last week, while in this unimaginative channel, do I fret over riots or respirators? COVID or cops? Conspiracy theory A or conspiracy theory B? The stock market or the wet market?
This is as crazy a mash-up of insanity as ever in my eight decades on this mudball. A media field day, nirvana. And energy-sapper extraordinaire!
Nobody is coming to save us!!
Except our imagination. A sense of purpose. Undying principles.
Last week, I posed the question “Is COVID a Cataclysm or a Catalyst?” I suggested that COVID, in many ways, may be a catalyst in the form of a receding tide revealing our “nakedness.”
What is that nakedness?
- That we are rudderless with the loudest voices and knee-jerk decisions guiding the ship instead of common sense and a true sense of community.
- That a larger-than-self-purpose or spiritual quest has given way to societal conditioning, conformity, to “get-mine-now” consumerism, to “garage-door- up, garage-door-down” sense of community, to “us” versus “them” at every turn.
- We’ve come to expect “big government” or “big business” to save us, both of which have proven themselves deeply skilled at altruism head-fakes.
- That some long-standing practices have been exposed as harmful and/or fraudulent. As in a consumerist lifestyle. As in retirement!
“Anxiety is the hand-maiden of creativity”
I wish I knew who to attribute that quote to since it is so timely.
COVID-spawned anxiety is very real and ubiquitous. We can be creative within that anxiety or be crushed by it.
Here’s a dose of anxiety: fully one-third of Americans now feel they will never be able to retire. According to Yahoo Money, seven in 10 Americans expect the pandemic to hurt their retirement savings, with a fifth predicting a severe impact.
I can think of few things that can create more anxiety – aside from severe health issues – than something that futzes with our ability to retire. It would seem that there isn’t much that can dump more cortisol/adrenaline/norepinephrine into our increasingly fragile immune system than the prospect of not being able to achieve that pseudo-entitlement and to have to – oh, horrors!! – continue to work.
This should be music to our ears!
I heard you say it: What, are you nuts? Risk your readership with a direct frontal assault on this revered institution?
Nothing new here – for three years, I’ve been part of the growing crowd that is exposing traditional retirement for what it really is – a trojan horse with few upsides and a plethora of downsides.
I’m encouraged that one of the greatest catalytic impacts of COVID may be to finally put traditional self-indulgent, leisure-based retirement on life-support.
Name something less imaginative than retirement.
Let me help as you ponder the question.
- The word came from the French verb “retirer” which means to “withdraw, go backward, retreat to a place of seclusion.” Will you find that in your DNA? Only if you’ve tabled your imagination.
- It’s an 85-year old concept, designed for political purposes with an arbitrary, “artificial finish line” of 65 at a time when people rarely lived to 62. Let’s spell it together: i-r-r-e-l-e-v-a-n-t.
- With help from the media and the product-peddling financial services industry, we’ve been convinced that “work” is a dirty four-letter word and something to jettison when in fact it turns out to be a central tenet of good mental and physical health.
- It exploits the myth that senescence is automatic and unalterable when in fact the opposite is true.
- Some of its most identifiable fruits are boredom, sedentary living, withdrawal from continuous learning, and ultimately “living too short and dying too long.” Kinda like this life-model that still persists today:
- Retirement doesn’t exist in nature and didn’t exist anywhere on the planet 150 years ago. It’s yet another manipulative tool designed by man for political advantage that morphed into an “entitlement” that appeals to and exploits our decadent, lazy nature.
- How imaginative is it to suggest one pack up their accumulated skills, talents, and experiences and trade them in for bingo, bridge, boche ball, and beach bungalows while denying society the power of that accumulated wisdom and common sense?
End of rant. The list can go on.
Imaginative would be to say:
I was created with unique skills and talents that I choose to continue to make available to humanity until I can no longer.
How can that not be healthy for our sagging culture?
How can that not be better for a personal biology that offers only two options – growth or decay?
How can that not be better for those behind us who are so uncertain of what lies ahead?
Wisdom and experience redeployed and not wasted, common sense resurfaced, timeless principles resurrected – somehow it just sounds more imaginative.
A “New Retirementality”, a “Victory Lap”, and a “REWIRE!”
COVID is accelerating the much-needed redefinition of what post-career, post-parenting life can be.
If you are at that life juncture, here are three books you may want to check out that do a great job of delivering imaginative “redefinition” messages along with actionable ideas to assist in the transition:
- “The New Retirementality: Planning Your Life and Living Your Dreams … at Any Age You Want” by Mitch Anthony
- “Victory Lap Retirement: Work While You Play, Play While You Work” by Mike Drak, Rob Morrison, Jonathan Chevreau
- “Don’t Retire, REWIRE!: Five Steps to Fulfilling Work That Fuels Your Passion, Suits Your Personality, Fills Your Pocket.” by Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners.
Let ‘s refind our inner magician and imaginatively reinvent our way out of this chaos.
Because no one is coming to save us!
I appreciate you and thank you for reading. I also appreciate and benefit from your feedback. Let me know what you think with a comment below.
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Gary, I have attempted to respond in the past but never gotten through the filters. Maybe this time will be different. I am happily retired and doing volunteer work that works for me and uses my skills and energy. I have travelled much with 27 years in the military and now travel for fun and recreation. I use my imagination daily in planning activities and adventures and am rarely, if ever, bored. We planned for retirement and are not trapped by it. There is much to do, learn, and participate in without needing to “make a living” from it.
Thank you Dola!
I think you and we combine two distinct notions in “being able to retire”.
Being able to retire is one notion (what are you going do, etc.) and being able to financially retire is another.
Retirement coaching is one thing and financial retirement coaching is altogether different.
I think more people suffer from the financial restrictions than the other. That is a whole different construct.
God is my earthly co-pilot. I lack for nothing and await deliverance from worry, fear, stress. For now, I am at peace at age 68.
Bravo!!
Laid off 10 years ago from my corporate job, became a yoga teacher, specializing in
Pro aging- people over 60 to be able to live with more vitality!! What a journey, doctors tend to tell people “ it is just your age”- When you can get stronger ! Also started a wellness products on line store!
Now in my 70’s I feel I help myself & others & still have time to do things I like-doing nothing besides eating out & going to the
Doctor sounds like living death!
Go bold or go home! Thank you for the encouragement!!!!
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