"The web of our life is as a mingled yarn, good and ill together" (All's Well)

....I've been giving some thought of late as to whether or not retirement is better in life than one's working days--or vice versa. Well,let us begin at the beginning--going to college. Of course, in order to get your BA degree you have to write a lot of papers without knowing if the professor reads them or not. After four years of hard work--and I'm thinking before computers--just a typewriter for those papers, one finally gets out, gets married, finds a job. Or finds a job then gets married. Either way, it's a life sentence; or supposed to be if one is faithful--enough. Then it's time to find a place to live so you rent an apartment somewhere in Queens--or Brooklyn, or let's even say somewhere on Long Island. Doesn't matter. Lucky enough you find a job as a high school teacher and your wife becomes a secretary. You must get up at 6am, come home after a hard day in the classroom, turn on the radio and listen to Red Barber doing a Dodger game, or Mel Allen for the Yankees. The wife doesn't cotton to baseball, so you switch to Jack Benny or Fred Allen. After a couple of years she yearns for a baby, so you have a couple. She has to quit her job, and money becomes tight.

.....These babies require a lot of equipment, their own room, carriages, car seats--and yes, cars have been invented, but unfortunately no automatic steering, or CD players, so only stick shifts. You're driving home from work one day and you would like to take the wife out to dinner, but you can't call her--no cell phones, no iPods, no music for your ears all day long. Then babies grow up to be teenagers and they are impossible; they can't believe that their parents know so little. By now you've saved enough in order to buy a house. You take out a 30 year mortgage and hope you live that long. At school the kids are eating you alive and the principal assigns you to lunchroom duty for a month. So, now after 30 years on the job you are burned out and ready for retirement. At this point let's examine retirement to see whether or not it's more acceptable than your college, your marriage, your job, your kids, and your life.

.....You're 58 now and healthy and fit. You drive to Florida, buy a condo in a 50+ community with a grand clubhouse containing a billiard room, a gym, an indoor pool, card rooms, a ballroom, and a theatre. You wake at 8 or 9am work out at the gym, run five miles, go for a swim. Next day it's off for 18 holes at the golf course. What a life! After seven years at this Elysium you finally get your Social Security and eligibility for Medicare. You've had to go to a few doctors in those seven years to get medication for high blood pressure, iron deficiency, neuropothy, penile malfunction, and stuff. Suddenly you are taking some pills like lopressor, lasix, Pravacol, aldactone, coumadin, restoril, flomax, K-Dor, xanax, gabapentin, aerohist, asmanex, omeprazole, and Vitamin D. Probably everyone else in your community is on the same menu. When you're 70 you have to have cataract surgery, prostate surgery, and surgery for skin cancer--too much time in the sun. You get a surprise party when you're 80. By now, your back problems cause you to quit golf and your other exercises. Your hair has turned gray and you've developed a rotund figure. When you're 90 you can no longer walk without a walker to aid you. At 95 you're in second childhood and mere oblivion, "Sans eyes, sans teeth, sans taste, sans everything." So, then, which life is preferable; 30 years of working life, or 30 years of retirement life? Take your pick.