The other day a friend, soon turning 50, approached me with a volley of questions: How should I prepare for my retirement in the next 10 years or so? How can I mellow down my current urge of achieving so many things in life, yet unfulfilled? Should I really think of retirement at all, even though I find myself physically fit and mentally productive? Is there a model or formula that I can apply to age gracefully?
It is ironical that when you are a young applicant for jobs, they look for experience in you, but when you have accumulated vast experience and wisdom at work, they want you to retire from work. What a colossal waste of this experience? These senior citizens, still in good health and overflowing with valuable experience, have to hang their boots. Rejected by the corporate world and sidelined by the societies, these individuals often go into depression and turn into huge liability for their families and governments. Growing number of old age homes is, indeed, scary. Only rare few of them succeed in maintaining their health and mental sanity by indulging in social services and / or interesting hobbies at their individual levels against many odds.
According to a French proverb, "If youth but had the wisdom and old age the energy." So true! Youth’s energy is like the accelerator of a car, while the wisdom of the old age is like the brakes. Only accelerator will end up in accidents and only brakes will prohibit all movements. You need both the accelerator and the brakes for the safe driving. Why can’t we have a system wherein those aging people, who are still in good health and mentally agile, are gracefully moved into positions where younger lots can benefit from their wealth of experience and wisdom? Universities can be one such place, where academic qualification requirements for a Professor (a PhD) are lowered in recognition of their experience. Corporate houses can form a layer of senior advisers in various disciplines to guide their younger work-force. Governments can establish ‘think-tanks’ in various areas, where such senior citizens can guide the young policy makers with their wisdom of the real world. Local communities can set-up centres where senior citizens can be approached by the students and young parents for their personal and professional counseling.
Having fulfilled all family obligations and saved enough for rainy days, these senior citizens don’t need much of financial remuneration or fancy titles. All they need is opportunity to share their experience and a lot of respects from the younger lot. This would be a ‘win-win’ for all. So long as a person feels wanted, he lives a healthy life. Huge national resources have been invested in building this pool of experience, and it must be kept gainfully employed until the very end.
Notwithstanding the above, there is no single model or formula to age gracefully. Each person is uniquely wired and has unique desires; aspirations; characteristics; values; behaviours; capacities; strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, everyone must find his/her own way of aging with grace. Someone may find happiness in travelling around the world, while some other person may find peace in simple gardening in the backyard. Someone may enjoy voracious reading & writing, while some other person may find satisfaction in providing helping hands to the needy.
We must follow the laws of nature. A fruit falls from the tree only when ripened. Any attempt to pluck it earlier would harm both the tree and the fruit. Our desires are like the seeds, which must be allowed to flower and bear fruits. Once fulfilled from the core, the desire would drop on its own, leaving behind a matured person. Any suppression of desire would turn into ugly perversions harming both the person and the society. Age is not a factor in fulfilling any desire. One may graduate to desires of finding ultimate truth at young age or carry the sensual desires well beyond 50’s. Whatever may be the case, it is a solo journey, wherein we must remain conscious of every desire sublimating into some higher purpose, which then becomes the guiding force for the life. We must not imitate anyone else. We must live our own unique lives. We should let the nature take its own course and trust that nature would give us whatever we need at the right time. Age should remain just a number. Ernest Hemingway has rightly said, “Retirement is the ugliest word in the language.”
