A few years ago, I retired from the 9-to-5 grind – something that, since I am inherently lazy, I had wanted to do most of my life.  While I have continued to teach one class part-time at a nearby community college, I no longer have to commute daily to an office and spend a good portion of my life editing reports and articles that, on the whole, contribute little to the benefit of mankind.  I no longer engage in an activity whose primary purpose is to put food on my table and enhance some company's bottom line.

In these years since I retired, I have discovered that what I always suspected to be true.  Happiness in retirement depends not so much upon one's financial solvency as upon one's interests – or range of interests.  People whose lives revolve around their work, or who depend upon what they do for a living to form a large part of their identity, are miserable in retirement.  They might as well keep in working, horde as much money as they can, and enable their heirs to experience the real joys of living.  It's important, of course, to have enough money saved or invested to live comfortably, without worrying about how the bills are going to be paid.  However, beyond this, one's satisfaction with life depends more on one's interests, lifestyle, and mindset than on one's bank balance.

We can, of course, do new things that we haven't had time to do before, but for me the joy of purposeful sloth resides in being able to do more of the same things that I have always enjoyed, on my own schedule.  I have no trouble finding interesting things to do or in varying my activities when I become bored by something because, while I was working, I developed many interests in the little spare time that I had.  Now I can pursue them freely, without having to worry about punching a clock tomorrow.

True, many of these interests relate, directly or indirectly, to the kind of work I did when I was gainfully employed.  If they didn't, I might suspect that I had spent most of my life in the wrong occupation.  I read, I write, and I maintain this website devoted mostly to writing and grammar.  Nevertheless, I have many other interests that have been put largely on hold until now.  Many of them have been such that I couldn't become absorbed in them for fear of neglecting the work that I had to do.  Also, because one thing leads to another, and I can pursue new interests whenever they arise.

I'm fortunate, too, in that most of my interests are sedentary.  If nearly everything I had come to enjoy involved physical exertion, I would be in deep trouble.  Even if we take good care of ourselves, our bodies wear out sooner than we expect.  We can't climb mountains, play strenuous sports, bungee-jump, or whatever anymore.  It won't do to shorten our lives by becoming utter couch potatoes, but Mother Nature limits what we can do.  One downside of aging is that one spends an inordinate amount of time in doctors' offices, but even that can be at least tolerable because fading memory makes it possible to read old magazines as if they were new.

It also helps to have some younger friends and acquaintances.  Many of my peers have been inconsiderate enough to die.  I like hanging out with a somewhat younger crowd, and, when I find myself envying their youth, I can get perverse satisfaction in reminding them that, while they are chained to their desks, I am a free spirit, doing whatever I please.  Then they, who revel in the ersatz freedom of youth, wind up envying me.  I may also point out that, having achieved geezerhood, I can get away with almost anything.  Whereas they are expected to behave wisely despite the lack of experience to do so, I may flirt with pretty waitresses, engage in eccentric behavior, and so on because everyone will think that I'm senile and can't control my penchant for foolishness.  I let people entertain this illusion, even though I am actually wise enough now to recognize that foolishness bordering on insanity is the natural human condition.

That may seem like an excuse for frivolity, and, if it is, so be it.  Life should be worn as a loose garment, not as a straitjacket.  My wife has a T-shirt that reads, "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."  More than it ever was when I was younger, each day is now a glorious opportunity to play some more.  While I have the disadvantage of realizing that the time I have left for playing grows shorter with each day, I revel in knowing that I can play whenever I want as much as I want.  And when I get tired of playing, I can take a nap, without feeling guilty about things left undone.