Retirement is a trash concept.

Imagine investing years worth of energy, time, and money into a metaphorical factory to produce the income to sustain your livelihood. Then, when you hit a certain threshold, would you say “Fuck It” and burn it to the ground.

That’s retirement.

We are the machinery. We are the factory. We invest tons of resources into ourselves and our journey to maximize our potential reach and earnings.

And then we burn it to the ground.

We declare, “That’s it.” We slap on some pockety beige cargo shorts, a classy Hawaiian t-shirt, and then saunter off to the pool. There has to be more to life. Right?

I mean, we spent so much of our adult existence on working, so why not work towards something meaningful? Find something that you enjoy.

I don’t always love my job, but it provides the fodder and income to sustain my side-gigs and passions.

Sure, I do a pretty solid job with whatever I get paid to do but I am always hungry for more. And why shouldn’t you be? Life is about learning, growth, passion, exploration. Not giving up and melting into a recliner to the droning sound of “The Price is Right.”

I can’t imagine a day where I will enjoy doing nothing. My mind is a beehive of activity and processing. There must be an outlet. To stop working is to almost give up on life itself. Where will your purpose come from? Ladeling soup to hobos in a food kitchen?

As we approach our older years, we must find the activities that sustain us; that give energy to ourselves; to our community; to the world. Just quitting, taking your toys and going home is a crap path.

Ben out