Article July 31, 1971 Issue

Right Views of Retirement

GUY HALFERTY

Two prosperous-looking men were swapping stories about the problems of retirement. One said he had had a boat, but had tired of it, sold it, and bought a plane, and was afraid he would one day tire of that, too. The other man had both an airplane and a boat, but couldn't keep up much interest in either one. "My worst time is in the morning," said the first man, "wondering what I am going to do with myself all day." How typical this reaction to the release from the discipline of long-held responsibilities!

Have you ever looked up the words "retirement" and "retire" in the dictionary? Webster defines these in part as "inaction"; "to withdraw, go back, go to sleep, abdicate, relinquish." The various arguments pertaining to retirement fit uncomfortably well with the dictionary's description. Some people fear retirement, seeing it as lonely, bleak, underfinanced, a downgrading synonymous with advancing age. To others, it symbolizes liberation from drudgery into a life of perpetual ease, fun, and games. They work doggedly for years, piling up retirement funds—often virtually their only motivation for a lifework.

All such arguments call for a vigorous spiritual reversal, not only when the time of retirement is reached but at every age. They represent the false world belief about man's work, his purpose, his supply, his very existence. The basic belief in mortality, in a temporary sense of life ending in death, would deceive the whole human race into accepting an inferior and declining sense of identity, duty, and destiny with each passing year. If we accept the lie that man is a material mortal who ages and becomes less useful, we opt for material solutions that bind us ever tighter to the claims of diminished capacities and blighted hopes. The whole retirement concept calls for healing through prayer.

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