Retirement Is For Wimps

The original title of this post was Retirement Is For Pussies. But my daughter gave me a hard time about it, and rather than incur her wrath, as well as a protracted discussion I have changed Pussies to Wimps. I'm such a pussy.

I’m 70. I look, I’m told, at least 10 years younger than that. I feel, most days. at last 20 years younger that that. I could have retired at 65. But I said fuck it. Same with every year subsequent to that.

Writers don’t retire. Because writing is not a fucking job. It’s a calling. Or a fetish. Or an addiction. Or a passion. Or a slave driver. Or all of the aforementioned.

Nobody who meets me for the first time has any idea I’m an old guy. I don’t talk like an old guy. I don’t spout homespun wisdom or bitch about my aches and pains, well not always. I don’t yearn for the old days because for me that would mean working on a fucking typewriter and buying white-out by the case. No thanks.

It has never occurred to me to retire, because I am part of the last generation who learned what they learned from books and we have an obligation to keep on trucking. My computer is, for all intents and purposes, nothing more that a really nicely designed word processor.

I don’t give a shit about big data, or SEO or anything that has to do with the digital world. I understand it well enough to know that most of it is some sort of elaborate con job, designed to keep people working their asses off for a 1% ROI.

I have a personal brand, but it's not one that anyone would actually envy, because the only advantage to being my age is that I don’t really have to give a shit about anything anymore.That is unbelievably liberating. And it’s reflected in my brand, la de da.

I do give a shit about some things though. Like greedy bastards who are even old than me, wrecking the planet trying to suck out the last of whatever it had to offer in the first place. Like the education system and the Internet, which are slowly turning the entire world into idiots. Like stupid, short sighted politicians who have no idea what their job is anymore and maybe never did. You know, shit like that.

But despite all outward appearances I am not cynical. Because everything I give a shit about, and most of what I write about, is stuff that’s wrong. Just plain wrong. Stuff that is allowed to fester and bubble because of greed on the one side and apathy on the other.

It’s the fucking 21st century people! We were all supposed to be one human race by now. But instead we have a world that is more divided than ever. Racially. Religiously. And every other 'ly' you can think of.

Why? Because we fucked up and based the economy of the world on war. Without a constant stream of battles raging, the world would be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Admittedly, there’s not a fuck of a lot I can do about it. But I can rant, and I think that everybody who sees what a shitstorm the world has become should rant too. They should also pressure their local idiot politicians, and remind them just who the fuck they work for.

Not that much of this will ever happen. Too many people are wrapped up in their own shit for that. You know the old greed v apathy battle.

So I’ll do it for you. Share this post and you can rant by proxy. Send it to your local politicians and tell them this is how you really feel.

Go ahead. Do it. I guarantee you, you’ll feel good about it and nobody will come down on you for all the cuss words. That’s all on me. Any idiot can see that.

jim out