Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
An anniversary of sorts
I had my first patient today who was seeing me for his one year followup. I can’t remember when I started with the new job — second week of July, 2009, I think. (Ah, here we go.) So I passed the “real” anniversary some time ago.
But in a way, this is the only anniversary that counts.
One of the rewards of being in private practice in the same community for ten years was the joy of watching some people grow up . . . and some grow old. I miss that. It will be a while before I get that feeling of connectedness here in Bako, but somehow passing my Year One anniversary makes me feel a little closer to that goal. Now if only someone would cure this aging thing, because life is going by way too fast.
Do you realize if medical research comes up with true life extending technologies, that will be the end of retirement? Or at least, the end of State-funded or corporate-funded retirement. Self-funded retirement could still work. But you have to ask yourself just how long you could tolerate a life of leisure. I suspect most folks would go back to work (or stay at work).
I wonder: if we had complete control over our work week, and we were working solely for the pleasure of it and not to earn money, how many hours would we work per week, on average?
D.
Interesting question. I’ve always maintained that retirement is no good unless you still have something to look forward to (even if it’s just a good meal out), and you have your health. Staying busy is key, but no one wants to be so busy you can’t have some free time to do more of what you enjoy. Thus you have people wishing for 26 hour days or a 4 day work week.
If I didn’t have to work to earn the money, I’d be teaching a couple of classes, and that’s it. What I’m doing now comes close to that.
And you’ve already reached that point where you realized how quickly life disappears. Life is a dirty trick where just when you reach wisdom, your body fails you; for those of us lucky enough to feel good and have our marbles intact and do what we enjoy, well, there are damn few of those people.
I’d be happy working 3 days a week or, even better, flat out when there’s something interesting and not at all otherwise. Which would probably net out to about 25 hours a week but would look more like 10 hours a day for 5 or 6 days, then a week or 2 off.