Just the other day I was telling Robyn that I could not think of a subject for my blog piece this week. I then stopped to consider what a prominent feature of my week writing this entry has become for me. It is a time-consuming endeavor. It also takes a fair amount of discipline to produce a piece on a deadline each week. Fortunately, I do have the luxury of time. If I have not previously mentioned it in these weekly musings, the reason I have so much time on my hands these days is that I am, to put things generously, “semi-retired” from gainful employment.
I have been a practicing attorney for more than forty years. When Lee died, I lost my enthusiasm for lots of things, and this included maintaining my law practice. Fortunately, I have since regained my footing in most matters. However, in terms of my professional life, the truth is that I was beginning to lean in the direction of cutting back even before she died. First, despite the fact she ended up spending much of it in a hospital, Lee’s long-awaited retirement from her job, which had begun a year earlier, provided incentive. Second, as for me, I was 67 years old by the time Lee announced her retirement. We had big plans that we were going to fulfill!
Some folks tell me that I am just kidding myself to even use the term “semi-retired” in describing my current employment status. Admittedly, even when I was still a “working” trial and appellate lawyer, toward the end my billable hours were low when compared with the younger lawyers at our firm. No one ever openly complained about this, I assume because everybody was making money from the business that my partner and I brought with us when we agreed to join forces with an existing larger firm.
Don’t get me wrong. I always found trial and appellate work to be particularly challenging, competitive, and plain fun to boot, and this remained true, albeit to a lesser, post-Lee degree, right through my last Covid-impacted federal jury trial in the Spring of 2021. But by then, going in I already knew that this trial would be my last trial as lead counsel.
As for our other pending cases, my long-time law partner and I reached a fresh business accommodation to deal with my decision. By design our new arrangement has me working much less than I once did, but I could probably work more if I wanted. Meanwhile, I remain free to voice my opinions about specific cases and clients. On the one hand, I am no longer responsible for making the large strategic decisions. My new freedom feels good. Instead, my partner merely hands over discrete and short-term projects for me to handle. These types of projects arise all the time in complex litigation such as ours, so I will be able to keep my fingers in the business. As for my partner, he is working harder than ever and loving every minute. Yet I recognize that unless there is a windfall in my future (C’mon Powerball!), beginning this calendar year my income will dwindle, reflecting my new status as a “semi-retired” professional person.
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I am well-aware of the all the “free time” that I have added to my life as the result of cutting back on gainful work. I also am aware there is serious science to suggest that for many of us, retirement will prove to be unhealthy. For example, evidence suggests retirement can significantly increase your risk of developing chronic conditions, including severe cardiovascular disease. See https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21322085/ (last visited 4/26/22).
Underscoring these potentially negative aspects of retirement, the results of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), launched back in 1958 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have forced researchers studying normal heart aging to rigorously examine the role that heart disease plays in the aging process. And, despite some significant differences between American and British models, including Britain’s nationalized health system, 20 years of research involving people in England over age 50 seems to have confirmed the potentially serious adverse consequences of retirement in terms of physical wellness. See English Longitudinal Study Of Ageing (ELSA) https://www.elsa-project.ac.uk/ (last visited 4/26/22).
Furthermore, scientific research suggests that retirement can have equally detrimental effects on our cognitive abilities, especially if one’s notion of a good retirement involves aimless loafing. Unlike me, for example, Robyn is still working full time. In part for purely selfish reasons, from time to time I will give her sh*t about continuing to pursue full-time employment. However, it is also the case that gainful employment, even in a sh*tty, dead-end job where you are constantly complaining and seem to despise most of your co-workers, might still be better for maintaining your mental acuity than aimless loafing.
Still, there are options to working full time that are available if you have retired. For example, using your retirement to explore things you always dreamed about doing, say, taking up a new hobby or a new language, volunteering for (one or more) worthwhile causes, strengthening connections with family members or friends, are just a few ways to avoid retirement’s potentially harmful effects on mental health. Me? I like playing my guitar. I currently do a little volunteer work and am looking for additional volunteer opportunities. I work to maintain my social network. Oh, and I write this blog each week.
Sadly, the minimal research I was able to conduct for this piece also suggests that human beings in general have a freshness expiration date, and there is not much one can do for it. In short, even if I were to pursue these activities with great zeal, and in the process remain mentally and physically intact, I still am unlikely to have enough time left to complete the items on my personal wish list.
On the other hand, I must keep in mind that a semi-retiree like myself always has the option to resort to loafing should my day-to-day existence ever become too taxing for me to handle. Would this qualify as living on the edge?
