My Life, So Far So Good...

A friend of mine who is taking chemotherapy commented about her treatments:  “Well, I feel like the guy who fell off the twenty story building.   Around the eleventh floor he shouted,  Well, so far so good.” That is a comment I often repeat when someone asks, “How’s retirement going?”    Sometimes, I feel they could just as well ask, “How’s it feel being old enough to remember meeting a veteran of the War Between the States?”  Or, “did you really have something called telephone party lines that had to be shared with neighbors?”

Maybe I like the Church balcony because it makes me feel younger.  That is where the youth hang out.    Last Sunday, I made a bold move from the center section of the balcony to the side  section. For those in the center section of the balcony, it’s not that I don’t like you, but  I can hear better on the side and it is also close to the exit, just in case.  Even though I feel younger being near those balcony youth, the reality is I select my pew based upon  its proximity to the nearest bathroom.

To be honest, I suppose I must confess that I am struggling a bit with being retired.  I miss coming back from vacation and not having an office where I can rest and recover from all the fatigue of our family vacation, fun as it was.  I miss not having office colleagues to remind me when it’s time to leave for lunch, or who can fix the computer malfunctions while I have a jelly filled donut, compliments of the local funeral home,  in the work room .  I miss having someone to screen the calls and say “Dr. Herman is not available right now.  Would you like to leave a message?”  I suppose I could do that on my recording machine at home, but  it’s somehow not the same. 

I really hope my wife does not read this blog, because if she does she’ll think of a hundred things for me to do, assuming I am bored.  Actually, I do have a part time job at the hospital.  I sub for the director of chaplaincy and assist on occasion with a clinical education didactic for seminary students.  My boss, the director of the department, is younger than my first born son.   When I appeared at our morning department meeting dressed in my blue shirt, tie, and kaki slacks just like two other students  he asked, “Is this bring your grand kids to work day?”   Some of the seminary students appear to be born during the Bush II era, and may have come from some other planet that speaks a language ladened with words like megabytes, microchips, and gigawhatevers.  In their world of virtual reality, I attempt to ask them to listen to the real stories of hurting patients and struggling, overworked hospital staff, and reflect upon their own narratives that shape their world view.

The retired life is offering lots of opportunities and challenges.  I suppose I’m doing O.K. and am grateful I don’t have to rush off to work most mornings.   But sometimes I feel that I  might just be passing the eleventh floor of the retirement leap right now. I will not complain because so far, so good.