I don’t like the word retirement, but here it is. We , Peppy and I, are retired. I guess it refers to the fact that neither one of us is currently being paid for the work that we do. And I suppose it refers to the fact that living requires income of some sort by someone in each household. But not everyone in a household is expected to work. Children, for example. Although there are households that have working children. Older people, too, although many older people do receive some kind of pension income. And lots of households have more than one working adult. In fact, households do need both working and non-working people to do the unpaid work of a household, unless all the housework is paid for by employing someone outside of the family.
Perhaps I am too concerned about the issue of who gets paid for what. There is a lot of housework and child-care that falls unevenly on women, whether they work a regular job or not. And Peppy is wonderful about dividing up the unpaid work in our household. So complaining about this is not immediately relevant.
The other problem I have about the term “retired” is that we both do or at least have done paid work after our official retirements. And furthermore, we have continued to work at HRI after we received official retirement pay. In other words, it was not an official break between paid and unpaid work. Well, our retirement plans all take this into account, either by describing the income as “early” retirement or….My dissatisfaction, then, is merely with the permanence that the word implies.
So hear it is. We are retired whether we like the term or not. I still look at people like Kissinger who continued to be active politically until he has 100! But then, I am more aligned with the likes of Jimmie Carter who also lived to be 100 but did go into retirement long before that. Of course, he had dementia for part of that time, put he did launch an active retirement life with his skills both as a statesman and as a builder of fine cabinets and things. And he rote lots of books, both fiction and nonfiction. I won’t ever be famous, of course, but that is beside the point. So, on to retirement!
Years ago, when I thought about retirement, I remember thinking that I would learn how to play the organ! I also dreamed of learning to play jazz piano. I can still try the jazz idea, I suppose, but I no longer have an interest in the organ. Our piano is long past its prime, but we do have a keyboard. And we had talked about purchasing a new piano. But I think that is out of the question now. And I am shifting my artistic interests into painting instead of music.
Painting is becoming more and more interesting, as I noted in the beginning of this latest righting exercise. I have enjoyed the art class and want to speak with Gain, the art teacher, about learning more about the different ways to painting. I suspect I missed an early class when this sort of thing was discussed, but it may also be because I don’t understand much of the discussions in the group. And Peppy has also suggested that I might want to hook up with my older artist friend.
Anyway, Peppy has fond this to be a handy way to find gifts for me, which is very nice. I have more art things that I can possibly use, but I am sure there is lots more than can build on what I have. And he has set me up with a second desk in the corner of the room we call studio B. It is also where I have put all my sewing materials, and I suppose I can also get more involved with that, especially with the idea of sewing things for Kaye and Remy.
Another artistic exercise I should develop is gardening. I have done a lot of it in the past, but I have not ever taken it as seriously as I could. I have lots of books that I could use for better ideas, and I am becoming more aware of how some plants survive better than others in this climate. Carol Nordquist, in the book and art clubs, gave me a nice plant the other day and said that I don’t need any guidance from her because I have such a green thumb! I almost said she was wrong. Just because I have lots of plants, as she saw when I hosted the art class, doesn’t mean I know what to do! But I kept my mouth shut.
I do have a lot of learn to do. I had some guidance from my mother, although it was so limited in terms of what I could have learned from her. She was, after all, a farmer’s daughter, who always had a garden wherever we lived. I could have asked her lots of things but didn’t. In those days I was more interested in her political views than in her planting skills. Anyway, I do want to learn more about gardening in this area of France.
Peppy has developed his understanding of olive trees, and we collect olives from some 18 treas in our yard. We do need to learn more about how to trim them, which is a challenge for wintertime. We also have lots of unwanted treas to cut down. Our yard is not really a garden – or at least, it hadn’t been a seriously cared for garden in decades.
And then there is the writing and reading which have been adjusted to deal with my stroke. The reading is important, of course, and I do a lot of it. But I realize that the writing should be my priority now. Not only do I have a lot to write about, but I am finding that the writing really helps me to have better reading skills.
More on this later. And also mention Peppy’s interests as well, although I do have in mind a separate essay on him.
