RETIREMENT AND THE END OF FANTASY

FANTASY

When I was a kid I used to fantasize about being rich, famous, and athletic. In fact I had that same fantasies well into adulthood. Yet I knew that wealth wasn’t likely to happen outside of the remote possibility of a lottery win or a casino jackpot. When I had a few bucks I took some speculative risks in the stock market alongside more conservative investments, but the safe bets were the ones which almost always turned out more profitable. Fame? With piranha-like paparazzi and a voracious internet, fame these days is more of a pain in the anus than a delight.  Athleticism I improved with hard work, but never to the point of playing high level sports with young or even old men. Watching football on a Sunday afternoon with beer in hand, jerking with every cut, tensing with every hit, I imagined how cool it would be out on the field with those guys. I worked out consistently for many years, going to gyms, jogging, and even learning martial arts, with modest results. Yet the daydreams and the fantasies always promise more than the gene pool allowed.

Recently I realized that it just wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t going to be rich, I wasn’t going to be famous and I wasn’t going to be an athlete. It took a while but sadly it’s for real. Heavy is the burden of maturity.

Now, it’s all about the real things I need to think about.  I even write them down to remember.

RETIREMENT

Every working stiff close to retirement is asked the questions, “Whatcha gonna to do with all that time?” “Won’t you get bored?”

Like an empty closet or drawer somehow fills up with junk and/or treasures, each day of retired life also fills, sometimes frustratingly fast, with things to do, even if it’s just relaxing on the porch watching the traffic pass or catching up on your DVR recordings.

Retirement time simply breaks down into four categories:

• Things you must do
• Things you should do
• Things you can do
• Things you want to do

Things you must do

Like it or not, one thing you have to do is shop; certainly for food, sometimes for clothes, presents, and other stuff. You are no longer limited to evenings, weekends and online so getting around to stores can take several hours a week. More if you like. Unless you are off the grid hunting, gathering and bartering, this is a must.

You must also pay your bills. Whether you do so on-line or by writing out checks, this has to get done along with appropriate record keeping. A lot of people are aided by Quicken.

You’ll find you have a lot of appointments to keep. There are doctors (more than there used to be), car maintenance, hair care, and tax preparers for example. Even lunch or breakfast dates with friends and fellow retirees. There always seems to be appointments.

You must protect yourself. Not only is personal safety a concern, but computer security, identity theft, and the scores of scammers who specialize in preying on the elderly. It doesn’t hurt to be a little paranoid and a lot careful.

Things you should do

Most important is taking care of your health. And that means exercise! Every day some exercise; several days vigorous exercise. It keeps your heart strong, your weight down, your muscles from atrophying and your mind positive. It is a bulwark against disease. It can promote better sleep and better sex and keeps you looking good. Don’t take my word: listen to the Mayo Clinic; or the CDC; or WebMD.

Another part of your health is diet, not as in “going on a diet” but as in “eating a healthier diet.” You don’t have to be all vegan to be healthy, but you should eat less meat, more fruit and vegetables, more whole grains, less sugar, and watch your portions. Here are 14 keys to a healthy diet. I’m good for around seven of them.

You also need to take care of your finances. Make sure you live within your means so that your means will last as long as you live. There are a lot of professionals willing to advise you, often for a fee, but you can start with AARP. Know what you have and how much you need.

You should also clean your house periodically and keep it in good repair. The lawn needs mowing and the walks need shoveling in season. And make sure the smoke detectors are working properly.

You should keep your car running well; you don’t want to get stranded. You should also wash it once in a while.

Things you can do

You can work part time. Depending on your skills, be a consultant; or teach a college course; or tutor. If you really just want a few extra bucks you can work part time; there is often a Walmart greeter position available somewhere. And don’t forget, being a poll worker on Election Day pays good money for mostly sitting down all day.

You can start your own business. There are so many possibilities from making a product to selling crap you’ve been accumulating for years to having a service people need.

You can volunteer. There are a lot of opportunities but you have to evaluate what you want to accomplish for yourself and for others. This article lays out some considerations, as does this one.

You can hang out at a Senior Center. Many towns have them where retired people gather to socialize, play pool, work out, take classes, listen to lectures and generally enjoy being around people their own age. A Senior Center usually has professionals available to help with governmental or personal issues seniors typically encounter.

There are always projects around the house from fixing things up to remodeling or decorating. Many people cultivate a garden where they enjoy pulling up weeds and cursing the animals that eat their plants.

You can have a pet. Dogs and cats require attention but return love. And you can make videos with them for the world to enjoy.

You can take a nap. Even if you weren’t up at the crack of dawn an afternoon snooze, especially after some afternoon booze, is this retiree’s guilty pleasure.

You can prepare for life after death and take care of all the things that need to be arranged for when you will no longer be around. Morbid but thoughtful, because if you don’t do it, someone else will have to.

Things you want to do

My list includes: read, write, spend time with friends and family, watch TV, watch movies, hike, bike, kayak, check out some museums; enjoy good tasting but unhealthy food (in moderation, of course).

I want to visit distilleries in Scotland and Ireland, sampling what they produce. I want to climb Machu Picchu, but that’s not likely to happen; I want to bite off more segments of the Appalachian Trail which will happen. I want revisit Amsterdam and Paris; Montreal and London.

I want to go on another cruise. Got one scheduled for next April already. Maybe a river cruise down the Rhine or Danube someday.

I want to go to a casino and win money. The going part is easy. The winning part takes luck.

I want to be young again. Hahaha, don’t we all!

You should make your own list. It might be longer than you think. It might also be the answer to the original question, “Whatcha gonna to do with all that time?”

 

So what became of the faded fantasy to be rich and famous and athletic? The reality is: I’m already rich with friends and family and somewhat famous within that group. Athletic? Not bad for my age as the hard work paid late dividends. If I do what I should and take care of my health, and do what I want and write this little blog, and do my travels and watch my diet and enjoy my food and drink, when it becomes time to prepare for my afterlife, there will be a lot of fine water under the bridge. I’m good with that. How about you?

:>Howard

 

 

EVIL WOMAN?

American woman, stay away from me
American woman, mama let me be
Don’t come hanging around my door
I don’t want to see your face no more – Guess Who?

 

I got a black magic woman
Got me so blind I can’t see
That she’s a black magic woman
She’s tryin’ to make a devil out of me — Santana

 

The “Lesser of Two Evils” is not really about evil. “It is the principle that when faced with selecting from two unpleasant options, the one which is least harmful should be chosen.” It is a strategy, like Hobson’s Choice; or Sophie’s Choice if you are so inclined.

True Evil is probably best used to describe terrorists, torturers and murderers. Dictators like Hitler and Stalin. None of the candidates in this Presidential election is literally “Evil”, yet Evil has become the go to hyperbolic word in the current election season, often used to malign Hillary Clinton.

 

WHEN DID SHE BECOME EVIL?

Without getting into “The Bad Seed” scenario and the events of her childhood, let’s stipulate that Hillary Rodham was an okay, normal, intelligent young lady when she went off to Wellesley and Yale Law School.

As a student in 1970 she was providing free legal advice for the poor in New Haven and handling cases of child abuse. She also researched migrant worker problems in housing and education.

Maybe it was in 1971 when she started dating Bill Clinton that an evil spell first appeared. Supposedly he was very charming and might have slyly gifted her a talisman.

It couldn’t have been in 1972 when she worked on George McGovern’s campaign. George was Liberal, one of the good candidates. She also spent time undercover in Alabama  to fight discrimination in education.

In 1973 she wrote an often cited scholarly article for the Harvard Education Review defending children’s rights. Hillary’s first job out of law school was with the Children’s Defense Fund, and one of her first tasks was going door to door investigating why so many children were missing school. She found that parents were not sending their children because schools did not accommodate disabilities.

In 1974 she was a member of the House impeachment staff investigating Richard Nixon. Could she have caught a corruption virus? There was a lot of it going around.

In 1975 Bill put the marriage ring on her finger and they moved to Arkansas. She joined a powerful law firm but still worked pro bono in child advocacy.

In 1978 and 1979 she speculated in land and commodities and made a lot of money. This could be it! As they say, “money is the root of all evil.” Yet accusations and investigations by two Republican Congressional Committees and Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr about Whitewater found nothing incriminating Clinton.

In the early 1980s, as First Lady of Arkansas, Hillary fought for reform of the state’s public education system. She fought for curriculum and classroom size standards and for preschool.

As a prominent and influential attorney she served on many boards from the Children’s Defense Fund to Walmart. Wikipedia states: “Once there, she pushed successfully for Wal-Mart to adopt more environmentally friendly practices.” Maybe it was from proximity to the Walton’s that she caught the evil bug.

As First Lady of the U.S., Hillary developed the Clinton Healthcare plan which required employers to provide healthcare to their employees. This was certainly evil, at least in the eyes of Republicans and the insurance lobby. Consequently, “Hillarycare” went nowhere and her popularity took a big hit. Working with Ted Kennedy she continued pressing healthcare issues and in 1997 the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) became law. Millions of children have been protected due to her efforts.

Hillary helped to create the Office on Violence Against Women at DOJ. She also initiated the Adoption and Safe Families Act and the Foster Care Independence Act.

Travelling around the world as First Lady, Hillary voiced concern about the plight of women. She was one of the first prominent people to speak out about the Taliban treatment of Afghan women. Most famous was her 1995 speech at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing where she said to delegates from over 180 countries:

“It is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights…If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all.”

Elected to the Senate in 2000, Hillary is generally acknowledged to have worked hard and built relationships on both sides of the aisle to get things done. After 9/11, she was instrumental in securing funding to help rebuild New York. She also instigated the investigation into health issues faced by the first responders.

Then she made a big mistake. She got sucked into voting for the Iraq War Resolution in October 2002. She later admitted it was a mistake and apologized for her vote. The vote was five months before the war actually began. She wasn’t the Commander in Chief. There was plenty of time to allow the inspections to run their course using the authorization as a diplomatic tool. But Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld wanted war and the responsibility for it falls on them. But now Hillary is getting blamed.

There are a lot of other votes and issues that took place during that time period. Some are controversial such as the Patriot Act (she voted in favor) and the Bush Tax Cuts (she voted against) but nothing that could rise to the level of truly Evil.

As Secretary of State she traveled the world, met with world leaders, and generally improved the favorability of the United States from that of the disastrous Bush II years. Until the Arab Spring.  While the protests in Tunisia led to an orderly change in government, the situations in Egypt, Libya, and Syria did not go so smoothly. US support for regime change might have been made in a sincere attempt to bring democracy and a better life to the people living under autocrats, yet religious fanaticism, tribal rivalries, and other factors resulted in the situation beoming chaotic.

As unwise and counterproductive as these actions were by the Administration, it is quite a stretch to say any of it was done with evil intent.

On the positive side, in 2012 she helped negotiate a cease fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and she worked on the agreement that halted Iran’s nuclear program.

 

WHERE IS THE EVIL?

There are a lot of issues that Hillary Clinton had positions on during her 40 or so years in the public spotlight. No one will  agree with all of them. Positions sometimes changed; maybe honestly with the times; maybe some for political expediency. People say that she does not have any core principles.  Yet there is a constant theme that seems threaded throughout her public history: she has always tried to help people. As shown above, she has fought to help children, the disabled, women, minorities, the sick, and the oppressed. She was a powerful voice within the establishment for people that had no voice. She effectively worked to make the system fairer for everyone. She worked hard and got things done.

During her career there were many Pseudo Scandals. Republicans used their power to launch investigations, eight about Benghazi alone, using millions of dollars in government funds to damage her reputation. Politically motivated, they were throwing crap up against the wall to see if anything stuck. The media, with their “he said / she said” false equivalence reporting enabled the Big Lies and phony narratives. If there is any evil to be found, it starts with a big “R”.

Every election is important but this one more than most. The disparity in qualifications between the major candidates is higher than ever. If Hillary Clinton loses the election this November to Donald Trump, it will certainly be a Pyrrhic Victory for her political opponents and the people who dislike or hate her. And it will be a sad day for the country.