Redessiners
Googling the origin of the word “retire” reveals that it comes from the French “re,” meaning “back” and “tirer,” meaning “to draw.” It means, then, to “draw back,” and, Google adds, “to a place of safety.” Search for its meaning in Word, and another definition of “retire” appears: “officially too old to work.”
Quite a picture, isn’t it? All of us who have become too old to work must now retreat from our businesses to our safe homes, where we will no longer encounter danger and where we cannot endanger others.
I prefer to use a different meaning of the English word draw: “to create or design.” Given that definition, the word retire would mean “to redraw” or “redesign.” (The French word is “dessiner,” and so, technically, we can call ourselves redessiners, rather than retirees).
In those definitions lie the two choices that we have upon retiring: feeling too old, we can withdraw from an active life, or we can be invigorated by redesigning ourselves.
I choose to be a redessiner, and I invite you to join me.
The first years of my retirement were an adventure. I loved the feeling of freedom and the chance to explore. I was euphoric, enjoying sleeping without an alarm’s jarring ring, reading morning news on-line rather than rushing to get dressed for work, and having time at last to pursue long-neglected interests.
But now, retirement is no longer novel. I have become used to a day without school bells, a calendar of perpetual days off. And the diminishing of the novelty has ushered in a dissipation of joy.
I have hit the reality of leaving a structured, pressured life for one that has no boundaries or parameters. Now, the prospect of long hours without an objective and without a schedule has become daunting. I have too much freedom, like a pin ball escaped from its machine.
And so, I have entered a stage which an Ohio State website (http://ohioline.osu.edu/ss-fact/0201.html} calls “disenchantment,” when a “person may miss the feelings of productivity they (sic) experienced when working.”
Disenchantment has come in the form of time-filling activities that cover over my growing anxiety. Watching TV, snacking, voracious reading, computer Scrabble, and listening to the radio fill time – but none of them fill me.
But other retirees, friends of mine, have supplied me with valuable lessons: I have learned that this reaction to retirement is universal, but that others have good ideas about how to be productive. Sharing with them has been exciting; my taste for adventure has been reignited.
Those lessons are the impetus for this blog, a place where we can validate feelings and where we can learn ways to redraw ourselves. The sidebar lists topics about which I will be writing; as I post a blog, the link will become active. I encourage you to add your own experiences in comments or to contribute blog posts of your own.