Re: It's time to saw the legs off rocking chair cliche, Tuesday Times.
Thanks to Douglas Spangler for his excellent guest column taking on the cliched "rocking chair" description of people who have worked at a regular-paying job, trade or profession and then "retire."
Sit in a rocking chair watching TV all day? I don't think so!
One of my friends, an avid golfer, retired after 30-some years of working as a highway engineer. Six months later I asked him how his game was. "I don't know," he replied, "I haven't had time to play!"
I "retired" in 1997 after 30 years in California civil service. Since then I have taken eight part-time jobs ranging from winery tasting room host to shoe salesman to real estate photographer.
"What's the matter," someone asked, "couldn't hold a job?" No. I took every one of these jobs because I now have the freedom to tackle something that looks interesting, fun and rewarding.
Even before "retiring" I was a volunteer in a fine search-and-rescue organization, and continued after retirement. I served a year as foreman of a county grand jury. Since moving to Florida, I've continued my service as chapter projects coordinator for the National Space Society, held one more part-time job, and currently teach the AARP safe driving program.
I've long advocated that we eliminate the terms "retire," "retired" and "retirement" from our vocabulary. Sure, some folks do settle back and don't do much of anything, but as Mr. Spangler wrote, "it's perfectly okay for retirees to simply enjoy life and not do anything particularly productive after working for 40 or 50 years."
Many have worked all their adult lives putting away savings and managing their incomes just so they can travel, play golf, fish and take the college classes they didn't have time for while working and raising families. We take jobs that we might learn from, as well as putting a few more bucks in the kitty. Oh, and we like to keep busy, too!
The literature and research says repeatedly that folks who have spent a lifetime learning the skills and work habits that count make excellent, hard-working, reliable employees, folks who can take the initiative, offer suggestions for improvement of the business, show up for work when they're supposed to (sometimes even when they don't have to) and have better attendance records.
Those who have worked for many years at one occupation are more than ready to try something different. For some it's a part-time job; for others it's volunteer work. One YMCA determined that its budget would be more than $1-million a year higher without the volunteers.
For me, "retirement" only means that I now have the time and the financial resources to do what I want to, and I'm doing it. Besides that, I still pay taxes, buy things that make a profit for businesses, and pay the bills that keep our community going. I hardly think I'm one to "sit on my fanny all day long and live off the fat of the land."
Sorry, gotta run. Have some things I need to do.
-- G.B. Leatherwood, Spring Hill
Here's more information on artistic rocks project
Re: Get a piece of the rock and paint it for charity, Wednesday Times.
Thank you so much for printing the wonderful article in the Hernando section of the Times. As "the rock person," I just wanted to add a few items:
The rocks are waterproof for artistic expression,
The rocks will stay at the businesses, and we are putting out a paper all year round called The Hernando Rocks Rag, with just the name of the participants and how to get to their rocks and the type of business. This is an incredible way for small businesses to get rock lookers to their door.
We also are giving all public high school science departments money to make topographical maps that describe the aggregate that comes from the mine and how it gets into roads, pipes, etc.
This would not have been possible without Rinker Materials and Clay Clements, who so believed in the project, and James Rosenquist, who gave us some startup capital to get the rock idea rolling.
-- Patricia "Trisha" Springstead, president, Art for the Heart Inc.
[Last modified August 5, 2005, 01:07:16]
