The Importance of Being Idle
Reading recent news has disturbed my equilibrium a bit.
The latest shock was that Nancy Pelosi (age 66) is now the most powerful woman in the States. Instead of worrying about osteoporosis and renewing her bus pass she is seeking world domination.
Hillary Clinton will be well over 60 by the time she is President in 2008. (Aren’t Bill and Hill a bit like Tony and Gordon? Watch out for Cherie.)
Perhaps Ming the Lib (age 65) should try HRT. He gets a lot of stick, but Margaret Beckett was appointed Foreign Secretary at the same age.
OK I’m cuter than she is and I don’t do caravanning - but such information does corrode away at the foundations of my retirement philosophy.
After years and years of hard work I decided that I was due for a life of loafing. My plan was to be a free spirit, no schedule, no alarm clock, no meetings and no pressure. Goodbye to the tyranny of the timetable.
And anyway I sometimes get a slight pain in my left knee.
So why is all this news about post menopausal power undermining my hedonistic convictions?
I can assure you that arsing around and enjoying days free of constraint and responsibility is extremely interesting and entertaining. But, just maybe, I sometimes think I should be using my massive brain for the benefit of the human race. Maybe I’m still experiencing the work ethic or guilt.
It could be that wherever I go on a weekday it’s full of pensioners and baby buggies.
When Esther (ex colleague) retired she drew up a nightmare timetable. If it was Wednesday it was ping-pong - Thursday was God bothering - Fri … you get the drift. She taught maths, which might explain her failure of imagination.
Rob (ex husband) suggested a reading group. WHAT? Not me - I’d be in trouble straight away for not doing my homework. Anyway, I’m allergic to the word ‘group’
I loved Leo Sayer’s story about getting a phone call about Meck’s remix - *Thunder in my Heart Again* - which went to no 1 earlier this year.
He said ‘I was just sitting around and it happened out of the blue’.
KAZ
The latest shock was that Nancy Pelosi (age 66) is now the most powerful woman in the States. Instead of worrying about osteoporosis and renewing her bus pass she is seeking world domination.
Hillary Clinton will be well over 60 by the time she is President in 2008. (Aren’t Bill and Hill a bit like Tony and Gordon? Watch out for Cherie.)
Perhaps Ming the Lib (age 65) should try HRT. He gets a lot of stick, but Margaret Beckett was appointed Foreign Secretary at the same age.
OK I’m cuter than she is and I don’t do caravanning - but such information does corrode away at the foundations of my retirement philosophy.
After years and years of hard work I decided that I was due for a life of loafing. My plan was to be a free spirit, no schedule, no alarm clock, no meetings and no pressure. Goodbye to the tyranny of the timetable.
And anyway I sometimes get a slight pain in my left knee.
So why is all this news about post menopausal power undermining my hedonistic convictions?
I can assure you that arsing around and enjoying days free of constraint and responsibility is extremely interesting and entertaining. But, just maybe, I sometimes think I should be using my massive brain for the benefit of the human race. Maybe I’m still experiencing the work ethic or guilt.
It could be that wherever I go on a weekday it’s full of pensioners and baby buggies.
When Esther (ex colleague) retired she drew up a nightmare timetable. If it was Wednesday it was ping-pong - Thursday was God bothering - Fri … you get the drift. She taught maths, which might explain her failure of imagination.
Rob (ex husband) suggested a reading group. WHAT? Not me - I’d be in trouble straight away for not doing my homework. Anyway, I’m allergic to the word ‘group’
I loved Leo Sayer’s story about getting a phone call about Meck’s remix - *Thunder in my Heart Again* - which went to no 1 earlier this year.
He said ‘I was just sitting around and it happened out of the blue’.
KAZ
20 Comments:
"using my massive brain for the benefit of the human race" ... but you ARE, Kaz, through this instrument of the interweb!!!
And you always get my canine brain going with your thought provoking posts.
I imagine Little Leo sitting in his little pixie cave waiting for his stuff to become fashionable again. Or the call turns out to be Cherie Blair wondering where she's left little Leo.
And I imagine Esther, the attractive Mathematician being propositioned by Eric, the lecherous nerd of a Physics Teacher at a staff room timetable planning discussion. He leans suggestively across Kaz sitting in the middle and says to Esther "Do you think there's any Chemistry between us"?
I'm so lazy I can't be arsed to comment.
God never intended people to be running around doing interesting and stimulating work in their old age. That's why he gave us Last of the Summer Wine, to give us something to do without troubling the rest of society
OOh Murph - I just love it so much when you flatter me.
Eric was called Hamish, but unfortunately he had no sense of humour whatsoever.
I was in a hurry this morning , so I'm coming over now to watch your video again. Hang on a sec.
mj: 'Yer a gal after me own 'art.'
That was a cross between Corrie speak and Canadian
Gary: I hope you are referring to the drinking of the stuff.
I am practising my shuffling and wheezing ready for my Significant Birthday shortly, then I'll be right there with you, avoiding getting tied into another routine, and suiting myself.
If you decide to mobilise your massive brain, let us know, so that we can all shuffle along and watch, suppressing a wheeze or two.
Stitch: *shuffling and wheezing*??
Where did that idea come from?
You'll make a great 'Free Spirit'.
You're one of the VERY few people who give me hope beyond the age of 60, Kaz.
Bless ya!
Thanks sl: If I can help you face the next 30 years, my idling has not been in vain.
I'm definitely in favour of the age of retirment being lowered to 35, as a way of tackling unemployment figures if nothing else ...
Betty: You are so selfless and public spirited.
Hey, leave that nice Ming man alone. His wife's a Coronation Street fan and even did her OU thesis on strong women of the street!
PS: Kaz - are we related?
betty - that's not fair on those of us who have had to slave away to the present retirement age!
I reckon the rest of them should all work longer, and contribute lots more to the pensions of those who have retired by the end of this year.
I can't wait to be 60 and have your life!!!
Nora: Fascinating information re Mrs Ming.
My dad was a bit of a mystery - so who knows?
Stitch: I think the term is *Dog in a Manger*.
But I'm sure you would make an exception for our lovely Betty.
Lubin: Don't wish your life away. What you should do is win the lottery and get my life without the wrinkles.
Not that I have any wrinkles of course.
Golf.
Gert: How would that use my 'brain' to benefit the human race?
I don't do sport or hobbies - I just want to stop feeling guilty and make an impact.
OK - Too much to ask.
I'm sorry, I was being unnecessarily facetious.
When my mother retired from social work I was full of suggestions of how she could use her professional skills in a voluntary capacity, and she looked at me in some disdain on the basis that she had spent her working life making a difference, the implication being that the 'volunteers' of the silver age had mainly spent their working years pursuing mammon or being decorative wives.
More seriously, I think if one goes looking for something for do to occupy the brain/stave off guilt, one soon loses motivation. I suspect the motivation should come from within.
For example, I know quite a few people who have mentored troubled teenagers, because they felt that it's all very well banging on about the youth of today but what am I doing about it. Similarly people who get involved in Residents Associations and local campaigns. Not 'to do something' but because they wanted a specific outcome and knew that it would only happen if they worked to achieve it
Facetious is fine!
Perhaps I was just jealous of Pelosi and Beckett's power... or maybe the smart suits and black stockings.
I've always liked troubled teenagers - so perhaps that's a thought.
For the moment I'll just do a bit more loafing.
And don't feel guilty about anything - you have spent a lot of years giving those teenagers some education, so you've done your bit.
Why not learn a new language for fun, or learn to play a musical instrument, or start to study some abstruse topic, and become a world expert, if you really must DO something.
But what's wrong with idling and loafing?
Yeah Stitch: I'll just idle and loaf until it happens.
What an excellent role model eh?
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