Perceptions and Passages of a Lifelong Participant by Stephen G. Harding
Leave it better than you found it. Leave it on your own terms. Leave it with your integrity intact. I’m retired. Or am I repurposed? Maybe just redirected. Since I’m 76 and more worn than not, I may even be just a retread: “A person retrained for new work or a superficially altered version of... Continue Reading →
Now What? An Open Conversation with Myself Time is flying. The stars aligned. You've hit the magic age. A 40-year career is complete. The kids, now adults, are grown, accomplished, self-sufficient, married, and, have children of their own. The day after writing that last tuition check was like getting a raise. Still, you and your... Continue Reading →
The Balance of Time--A Conversation with Myself It was a balancing act. A tug of war if you will. It was the continuum of competing interests for the most valuable commodity of all; time. In reality, it’s always been that way. The demands we put on ourselves, the expectations from others. It was a... Continue Reading →
It Sure Can be Quiet--An Open Conversation with Myself Nothing rings. Nothing buzzes. No business calls. No work related e-mails. No invitations to speak. There are no texts, no tweets, no nothing. Well, that's not totally true. You do have to count the ones from family, a few friends, and that core of current and... Continue Reading →
Where Have All the Friends Gone? An Open Conversation with Myself "Now What"--Even going over this time after time are you really ready? It isn't that you didn't prepare, or so you thought. You had it all figured out. The closer you got to pulling the plug on 40 years of meritocracy the more the... Continue Reading →
Just about five years ago, I wrote this ditty. In retrospect, I wouldn't change much but I've now added 60 more months to the odometer, 60 more months of ups, 60 more months of intermittent downs, 60 more months of retrospection. Let's just say I've expanded my inquiry. As in the minds of those with... Continue Reading →
And it's not just women who have disappeared. I've apparently disappeared as well although I'm not really complaining. My angst is one of disappointment. Since my retirement almost 10 years ago, I've really made an effort to stay in touch with those from my working past. Regardless of the mode of communication, many of these... Continue Reading →
No, that’s not me. It can't be me. It may use to be me. But that’s not me. Well, it might be me, at least a more contemporary me. After all, memory loss, convenient or otherwise, may reconfigure notions of what was me. A wishful reworked plethora of alternative facts. But really, cognitive biases and all,... Continue Reading →