Above Ground and Counting: A Few Thoughts on My First Year of Retirement

I did not enter retirement casually.

I thought about it a lot.

I knew that defining retirement in terms of what it was not ... NOT WORKING ... would not suffice. Instead, I defined it based on a few simple premises. First and foremost, retirement is not the end of anything; it is the start. Secondly, retirement is not about taking a well-earned rest; it is about doing. Retirement is not about keeping yourself mentally sharp; it is about learning. And finally, retirement is not haphazard, nor by chance; it is purposeful. Thus, I set out to envision what my retirement would be.

Well before the official day arrived, I began to sketch the treasure map that would be my retirement. My map would guide my path as well as define my New World. It would be my reality, as well as my imaginings. I would know it for the old and familiar equally with the new. I would have plenty edges from which to peer into the uncharted regions, or to sail off of the world as I knew it. To steer such a course need no more than an adjustment in vocabulary. “I ought” no more! “I shall” for evermore.

They say … baby steps … one step at a time … don’t bite off more than you can chew. I disagree. Broad stokes first. Look as far as you can see … then imagine the next mile. Proceed with Awe at the reins, Caution riding shotgun and Conviction holding the map.

I am in awe of the world. My family were not travelers … by choice and by circumstance. Ever so slowly, the world other than South Boston, Virginia opened to me, mostly due to sports tournaments in which I participated. But a taste of elsewhere was all that I needed. I vowed that, “One day, when it is my decision to make, I will see more of this world”. I have and I shall.

My retirement would be about world travel.

In September, we took our first fall trip ever. We joined with Louis and Susan and headed for Great Britain. We saw London, Windsor, Stonehenge, and Oxford.

We spent several days along the coast of Wales,

after which we savored all we had seen and done until spring.

With spring returned our need to travel and we headed out again.

This time … it was the tulips of Holland.

We joined again with Louis and Susan and this time experienced the culture and beauty of the Keukenhof Gardens in Lisse, Delft, Den Haag, Gouda, Volendam, Monnikendam, Markem, and Amsterdam.

We will never forget our trips! And there will be more.

We also did some traveling on this side of the Big Pond as well. We never get enough of Ogunquit, ME, especially the Marginal Way and Perkins Cove. For Anne’s birthday we spent a couple of nights checking out the sights in Boston. During the summer we trekked to Sunset Beach with Bob and Joanna, visited Wayne and Cheryl on Lake Murray and Smokey and family in Greenville. Mitch’s Yoga Grand Opening in November was more than enough reason for an 18-hour drive (also bought my retirement kayak while there). We spent one day reading Thoreau and exploring Walden Pond and another reading poetry and visiting the Emily Dickinson Museum. One day was spent tracing the lives of the Skinners (silk merchants and philanthropists) of Holyoke and their family home, Wisteriahaus.

On another day, we adorned ourselves withleather aviator hats and took a biplane ride in Rhinebeck, NY.

When we needed another beach fix, we headed to Newburyport, MA and Plum Island. We will definitely be going there again.

I liken life to the opening and closing of doors. Experience tells me that for every door closed to us, other doors open. This has certainly been the case for me. Seventeen years ago I left my job in education. Fate slammed the door shut … but time revealed that it was not locked. In the meantime another door opened … to the world of art. It is a path I chose to take, and in doing so, I have endeavored to create art, share my art and to make art an integral part of my life.

My retirement would be about art.

I pride myself on having seen some of the greatest artwork in the world, and I have visited some premier art museums. My life is incredibly richer for the experience. In my first year of retirement, I have sought to see more. While in Great Britain, we visited the National Gallery and the Tate Modern. In the Netherlands, we saw the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, and the Escher Museum, While in Den Haag, we were able to see Vermeer’s "Girl With a Pearl Earring". I have seen the Mona Lisa … and for me, it was nothing compared to seeing the Vermeer. Incredible. I truly cannot believe that I stood 3 inches away from this painting and examined it for almost ½ hour … an important ½ hour in my life.

As far as my own work was concerned, I battled old demons of self-confidence and struggled with myself over whether to show my work or not. Said struggle continued to be an on-going battle, but I did manage to make some progress. In July I participated in the South Newfane Artists Open Studio and the Newfane Annual Juried Art Show. I was pleased to have pieces accepted as well to juried shows in Woodstock, Killington, and Keene. Better yet, my piece in the Keene State College Show sold on opening night.

We initiated a series of day trips that I called “ retirement adventures”.

My retirement would be about adventure.

These adventures encompassed numerous activities. One of our favorites was visiting art museums, and we managed to see quite a few … the ICA in Manchester, Chaffee Art Center in Rutland, The Clark and Williams College Art Museum in Williamstown, Andres Art Center in Brookline, NH, the Mead in Amherst, Mount Holyoke Art Museum, Hampshire College Art Gallery, Smith College Art Museum, and the Gardner and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

As an extra treat, we did a road trip in Charlotte, NC to find a huge head sculpture by Cerny called, “Metamorphosis”. It was definitely the icing on the cake.

Living in New England and festivals go hand in hand. Festivals for any and all reasons. Festivals and retirement are a natural as well, and we sought them out. We hit the Heritage Festival in Newfane for our annual super raffle fix. We lost as usual. Can’t miss the Pumpkin Festival in Townshend (I used to be principal there). The Dummerston Apple Pie Festival offered a slice of homemade pie and hundreds of bikers decked out in full leathers. The Scott Farm offered a fascinating presentation on locally grown heirloom apple varieties. The Peru Fair, a long time favorite for us, is known for its barbecue and local music. And how could we possibly pass up the Gilfeather Turnip Festival (I still have a packet of seeds). We even hit the Sheep and Wool Festival (one of the largest of its kind on the East Coast) in Rhinebeck, NY. Never saw so much yarn in all my life.

Here’s some retirement advice. Before you retire … get a Kindle. I actually got started on my reading plan a little before retirement. In a nutshell, I felt stupid because I never really read “the classics”. Who knows … maybe nobody ever read them. But I vowed to do so. And now, I can read whenever I want. I said that I wanted to do this, but sometimes even I don’t believe me. To test my sincerity, I launched my new reading program with the likes of The Iliad, Dante’s Inferno and Jane Austen. I read somewhere that Don Quixote is the greatest book ever written; so I chose it. Madame Bovary, Wuthering Heights, Tristram Shandy, The Age of Innocence, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde and Far From the Madding Crowd made my list. I read so much late 1800’s literature that I found myself inserting the terms “I shall” into my daily vocabulary. I decided that poetry was a weakness in my literary education. That is another way of saying that I don’t read poetry and never did. To remedy the situation, I read an anthology of the World’s Greatest Poetry, and collections by T. S. Eliot, Emily Dickinson, Longfellow, Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Lewis Carroll, Coleridge, Giacomo Leopardi, and Robert Burns. I read Whittier’s Anti-Slavery Poems, the Book of Negro Poetry, and Langston Hughes. I even signed up for a poem of the day on email.

I read the stories of the Arabian Nights, the sagas of Iceland, the epics of the Hindu religion, Tao Te Ching Taoism, Thoreau’s Walden, short stories of Edgar Alan Poe, Machiavelli’s The Prince, Conrad’s Nostromo and Heart of Darkness, Dracula, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I dabbled in the world of detectives with works of Henning Mankell and the Swedish detective Kurt Wallender, Snowman – a story of a Norwegian detective, and even a little P. D. James.

All this I topped off with the ramblings of a self-professed teenaged drag queen who writes as Germain Alcala and my favorite author’s (Jeanette Winterson's) newest memoir, Why Be Happy When you Can Be Normal.

So much for my year of retirement. I entered it on the heels of the death of my father and the disruption of my family. I no sooner turned around than we were faced with a 100-year flood across the state of Vermont. But, like I said, retirement is purposeful, and I had a plan. We filled the year with adventure after adventure.