etirement. Not!

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

At a regular weekly meeting, the Baron, with Lady Angela of Alpine Castle, asked their chief advisor, Professor Hamblin, about the large segment of the population that was getting older. Generally, when the older people announce their retirement, what actually do they do, and are their retirement years successful?

The men talked openly about what they were going to do when they retired, such as hiking, fishing, and hobbies, but the women still had the same responsibilities in the household before and after retirement. The retirement appeared to favor the man and not the woman, although the man often said that he would help run the house. But, more than likely, he only got in the way. He typically asked too many questions and wanted to change a fairly successful routine for his wife into disarray.

The man ended up sitting by the fireplace on the cold weather days, and out on the back porch on the warm days.

May of the retirees had second thoughts about being retired. It was most unfortunate that in many societies, even in Lilliland, the older women were treated as if they were invisible, and the older men who said they were retired were treated as if their ideas on any subject didn’t really matter.

Professor Hamblin said that the state of the retiree was not as it should be.

Lady Angela asked if the Professor had an alternate plan. The Professor thought for a moment and said that the answer was both simple and complex. If the retiree was lucky enough, he had a job that he could adjust in his advancing years. Not leave the job, rather serve in a special capacity depending on his skills and expertise. In that way, he was not underfoot as far as his wife was concerned, and she could still meet with her friends for afternoon tea, which is something that seemed to get set aside when the man was in the house.

Nothing was sadder than forcing a person out of a job because of an age requirement. The Professor added that age was only the number of days you have lived so far. It was not a reflection of one’s competency or abilities.

The Baron asked about what could be done to help those people who feared getting old. The Professor said that there should be no law or policy that worked against anyone because of their advancing age. After all, some of the world’s greatest scholars, writers and thinkers did their best work well into their eighties.