We’ll think about it

I reacquainted recently with old friends with whom I tend to visit spring to fall. I was rather stunned to hear one fellow announce to me that he and his wife were thinking of retiring. “Thinking of it,” he repeated. Both of them.

Wow, I thought. Really? Retire? Why?

He is a spry almost 82 year old. He’s in excellent health, he appears as fit as ever, and I doubt sincerely if his clothing size has changed in the several years I’ve known him. The same can be said for his wife, a dear friend who has hit “retirement age.” She has served in the same chief administrative capacity for about three decades. She is active, as fit as ever. I think she’s more tired of doing this same job yet again than feeling a desire to actually stop working.

I like my friend’s qualifier, “thinking of it.” Not set in stone, as they say. But thinking of it is a first step.

Soon after, I read an article at the issues website Nautilus about this very topic. The piece, titled “Retiring Retirement,” was written by Linda Marsa, a contributing editor at Discover magazine and author of the book “Fevered: How a Hotter Planet Will Harm Our Health.” OK, I’d never heard of her, but her article appeared on a news feed I like, so I read it, and it makes sense. The simple point: More and more people are retiring later and later. Because they choose to.

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