Retirement - A New World Order

by Gordon G Kinghorn

As I maneuver and weave my around round the pages of this magnificent website, I am constantly struck with people’s power of recall and the detail in which they make their superb contributions to Retirement-on-Line.

In this disagreeable age of economic ambiguity, international unrest and suicidal pop stars, I find it cheering that there exists a haven of sense and sensibility – an electronic Utopia that enables one to share with like-minded others – cherished recollections of days gone by and valued opinion on the subject of being superannuated - or simply opting to call it a day under one’s own volition.

Retirement for me was quintessentially a very difficult decision to make, questions pertaining to personal funds, full-time domesticity, perceived activity and overall fulfillment haunted me relentlessly – nevertheless, it was time - and I eventually leapt into a sea of ambiguity and fogginess – astonishingly, it has proved to be the best move ever!

The pleasures and benefits associated with my retirement are indeed splendid, as much as I would like to return to the heady days of the Sixties; the reality is that I am never going to – that decade is as dead as Hendrix, Ed Sullivan and JFK - and never to return, (sadly).

Equally, should there exist an alternative where I could exchange my current existence in order to become a twenty-something modern day…well, that too would be as unrealistic as the second-coming of Elvis – it’s not my era and I have no wish to be ensconced in the cut-and-thrust of it all.

“Life-in-the-Fast Lane” remains a great track recorded by the Eagles – as an appropriate lifestyle however – no way!

Confirmation that my recent withdrawal from the workplace was a sound move, came only recently thanks to a brief and all too infrequent get-together with my near estranged eldest professional daughter.

She confided in me that the demands being placed upon her were, in essence, undermining her social and professional calendar, adding further that before too long - and if things didn’t change, plans for motherhood would once again be put on-hold - and that she may soon consider purchasing tampons that come with bleepers!!!

I would dearly love to change my daughter’s lot and I said as much to her – at which point she scolded me for even thinking such a thing, “Life is great and your generation just cannot adapt” (I didn’t seriously believe we had to in truth).

As I journey towards antiquity, it strikes me that I’m now caught between my children and my now long-deceased parents – sitting on a perch somewhere between nineteen thirties idealism and 21st Century cynicism. Somewhere deep-down, there does still exist a teenager inside me – still believing that all we need is love, love, and love.

Equally, somewhere deep down, I question how I ever became grey – how on earth did I become a grown-up? I was of the generation that was going to live forever - but I turned sixty like everyone else.

Every new generation makes a distinctive contribution to the shaping of THEIR society – and every OLDER generation finds something abhorrent about the “routine” of the young of the day - I was increasingly becoming an all-too audible member of the latter group - time therefore to exit stage right...and so I did!

At twenty-nine years of age, my daughter is at the old age of youth; at sixty-one, I’m in the youth of my old age – I am a survivor, not a victim – I have now long dispensed with the notion that I have been discarded, or; as the Romans so eloquently put it; Damnatio ad bestias, (“Thrown to the Lions”)

I view my retirement as a deserved release from the iniquities and illiberal shortcomings of the rodent-race – For me, I have now entered a new world order and I know my place within –it’s sublime too!

Long may it continue!


© Gordon G Kinghorn 2012

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A New World Order
by: Anonymous

I view retirement as a time when at last, released from the constraints of work, mortgage and bringing up a family, I can return to doing the things that gave me pleasure in my childhood before life got in the way.

Born in 1942, my teenage years were in the 50s which, in retrospect, was a wonderful decade, emerging from the dark days of WW2, ending of food rationing, Rock and Roll, Elvis etc. it was a time of optimism with none of the greed of today, nobody had many possessions but we all seemed to be contented with our lot.

Yes I now have time again to read, play music and enjoy a quiet but happy time in the company of my partner.

I have MS and have become increasingly housebound but I have no regrets as I have lived life to the full and have many memories.


Retirement and shared memories
by: Anonymous

Once in a while we encounter a beautifully written prose heavy of insights and a deep understanding of our time.

Obviously, you are a product of the turbulent decade of the 60 where the young generation challenge the values and authority of the older generations. It was a time of rebellion and of change... a defiance to the established order ... events and developments set the dynamics of the time: the Vietnam War, Joan Baez, Malcolm X, The Beatles, Mao Tse Tung and Muhamad Ali...

I am retired too and I take the pleasant opportunity for self analysis and solitude retirement provides.

Keep on writing. There is a lot to share!



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