What Am I Doing?

I don't know how many times I have been asked that question since I am retired. I suppose I always pause when I am asked. I would like to say, “What am I supposed to be doing?” Or I would like to say, “Should I be doing something?” Instead I try to say something that will satisfy the questioner, like, “We are in a group that visits a trailer park which the church has been relating to for years.” That is a pleaser to people even though we hardly go there once per month. Or what really makes sense is if I say we have a rental we are working on some. Now you are doing something, seems to be the response. Are retired people supposed to be doing something the younger generation values? We spend considerable time “working” out back in the garden, the woods, and lawn. That hardly qualifies to the younger as being work, only a past time, or necessity for them, at least as far as the lawn is concerned. I wonder what people expect us to be doing in my mid-seventies. One friend about my age asked me what I was doing in the church as if you would expect an ex-missionary to be doing something holy. If I say we do regular intercessory prayer, one might think I am pious, or at least marginally working, at the best. Reminds me of years ago of a neighbor, when he heard I was feeding some chickens along with my college work, he responded, “It gives you something to do. Well, most of the time I have plenty to do- listening to music, reading news and internet browsing, and washing dishes and house keeping while my wife volunteers at the BABE store. Ah, some volunteer work, that would be a pleasing answer for many. If I only had the time.

June 9, 2012