Posted by
Buster Foghorn on Tuesday, February 03, 2009 11:50:07 PM
I recommend you read “Taking Retirement: A Beginners Diary,” a diary of a personal journey, an examination of values, a search for answers. You can read it to learn about the author’s journey; or perhaps, you can read it to share his quest while seeking answers to your own questions, allowing someone who has struggled with this transition to guide you. Let him help you answer your own questions about the role of work in your life and your future as you transition from an identity anchored in job and daily routine to a more unstructured daily life, a new life with an opportunity to spend the time in your own way.
You could also read this diary because the stories are entertaining, especially wife Kate’s education about washing fresh vegetables while on a trip, or the insight learned from a visit to an ancient scholar’s study in the classical Chinese pavilion in Vancouver. Or, you could read it to appreciate the writing, noting the sense of flow, appreciating how the parts fit together smoothly, and the sense of focus, observing the clear unity of the whole. There is a simple understated style in this diary—the words don’t shout at you, they don’t compel you—“notice me,” but the writing reflects measured choices, choosing not just what to write but how. The style is not like a translucent window—to be looked through solely for the underlying ideas. It is more like finely cut beveled glass—to be looked at, to be appreciated, to be enjoyed.
This diary also tells of the author’s love of gardening and his writing. But, truth be told, I believe his real passion is eating. A well-prepared meal, one with the right herbs and spices, the freshest produce, and the right combination of dishes, is an event always noted with relish and joy, documenting the pleasure of eating with friends, the opportunity to share events of the day.
“Taking Retirement” deals a pack of anecdotes and lessons. The diary details a psychological journey and an actual vacation trip. The psychological journey includes an enquiry, or polling, of friends, business contacts, associates, and retirees, soliciting their views of retirement, each offering a range of attitudes and responses about retirement, about leaving work and leaving an identity drawn from that work. The vacation puts distance between the author and the start of his first semester, his first semester as an emeritus professor, a professor without fall classes, without students, without colleagues. Professor Klaus’s personal account describes the start of a new life after 35 years of teaching. It records a search for meaning in retirement, a discovery seeking to balance the ship of life, seeking to reconcile conflicts, complete the journey, prepare to move to a new chapter in life.