Retirement: It’s Bigger Than You Think

All The World's A Metaphor

So you’re approaching – or you are already in – that stage of life when you can finally look beyond the life/school/work schedule you've been living since you were five years old. You’ve been through childhood, then the builder phase, which for most people meant raising a family and/or building a career. Now you’re making as profound a change as anything you've experienced in your last five or six decades. And unlike your callow youth, now you have the experience that allows you to see your life - and the world - with greater perspective. And of course, the wretched pandemic has upended everybody’s life, even as you prepare for great change.

There are many metaphors for the different phases of our lives. When Shakespeare wrote "all the world's a stage", he listed seven ages of 'man': infant, whining schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, 'lean and slippered pantaloon', and finally 'second childishness (and mere oblivion)'. According to Wikipedia, "the division of human life into a series of ages was a commonplace of art and literature, which Shakespeare would have expected his audiences to recognize. The concept of seven ages derives from medieval philosophy, which constructed groups of seven, as in the seven deadly sins".

Under the Hindi Ashramas system, this time in your life is called Vanaprastha, the 'retirement stage' (or, less forgiving, the 'hermit phase'), and it's very specific as to age: it's for anyone aged 48 to 72. Other stages in Ashram include Brahmacharya (student), Grihastha (the married householder), and Sannyasa (renunciation).

The Wisdom of Denzel

One of our favourites takes about the stages of life comes from actor Denzel Washington, who is 67. He relates the timeframe of life to a football game which is divided into 20-year quarters. He see himself as being in the late third or early fourth quarter of life. “When I turned 60, I looked in the mirror, I said, ‘You know, Denzel, this is not the dress rehearsal. This is life. So it’s not a matter of how much you have, the question is, what are you going to do with what you have?’".

Particularly interesting is his take on life after 80: he sees it as 'overtime'. He, and others living their fourth quarter, are consciously preparing for life in overtime. A pretty good metaphor.

Other Thoughts

However you think of this stage of your life, run with it. Keep healthy, keep active, keep inquisitive. Here are some other takes on this stage in our lives, including the Third Age. 

Tom New