Over
the last few months, I’ve had several conversations with people who are staring
down retirement. Some friends are
leaving their work with a deep sense of satisfaction, ready to take on some
long-postponed projects. Others are
worried about how they will fill the time and are looking for a way to hang in
for a few more years. One friend was
doing the most fruitful and fulfilling work of his career, but the funding ran
out, and he’s facing part-time work, something quite different. It might be marvelous, but I don’t think he’s
completely sold on it yet.
In
the back of most of those conversations lay a series of questions I suspect
we’ve all asked ourselves, even if retirement lies half a lifetime away: “Does
my life add up? Does it have meaning, this work into which I have poured so
much of my time and energy? Do I have a
legacy?” It’s worth reminding ourselves
that our privilege allows us to ask these questions of our work. Most people in history and most people in the
world today simply must toil on until their bodies give way. But for all people, life is unpredictable,
full of unexpected shifts, confusing blessings and overwhelming sorrows. We long to understand where our lives are
headed, how their true meaning will be revealed. But so often, in the end, there is only
confusion. We see ourselves only through
clouds of smoke, beset by doubt and fear.
