PHILIPPINES: Retirement - The time in our life - One Opinion

MINANDAO, Philippines (Sun Star), May 7, 2006: After working for what seemed an eternity - first as a journalist and then briefly as a government employee in this city - I retired, writes Cris D. Kabasares in a feature titled OUT THERE. (Columnist Cris D. Kabasares writes for a New York newspaper and lives, among other places, on an island called Minandao, Philippines). There's an exciting world out there that civilization rather aptly calls retirement. It's a wonderful world, I know! It's a wonderful world, I know! That's if work hasn't sapped out the life in you. It isn't all work that bothers, medical authorities say. In some instances, it's the job-related stress - that modern medicine tags as the leading source of ailments of people in a work-based culture. It's a deadly killer! So, we retire. Nothing heals the strain of long-term work like retirement, which probably why there is such a juncture in our lives. That's why people retire in sprawling and super modern retirement communities in many places in Florida, and in other states around the US where they enjoy the summit of life to the fullest. Surprisingly, not all believe in retirement, so it isn't for everyone. Some people refuse to retire. They go on working until they couldn't walk to the workplace anymore. Until they kick the so-called bucket, the cowboys would like to say. On the other hand, there are increasing number of people who retire early. Many pick up new skills and start fresh careers all over again. Others take up and enjoy river rafting, traveling, sailing, mountain climbing, skydiving, exploring and flying, among others. A few write memoirs. Others who've been in retirement for years go back to work and then endure answering the question "why" besides the really nasty ones. A year before retiring, I, and others as well, sat in lectures on retirement planning. The prevailing question we posed to the presenters who had exceptional CVs (curriculum vitae) in retirement issues was why some retirees go back to work. There were many surprising reasons, we were invariably told, but it seems that the overriding one was, and probably still is - financial in nature. Many realized that their benefits were inadequate to support their lifestyle. When sports writers asked former world heavy weight champion George Foreman at what age he would want to retire, bluntly, he said: "The question isn't at what age I want to retire, it's at what income." On record I'm enjoying my retirement rather enormously. On the eve of my retirement, I bade goodbye to friends and fellow-employees in attendance at the dinner-dance held in my honor at the Italian-American Club on Russia Street in San Francisco. Three days after, my wife and I flew to Hawaii. From there we flew to China, and shortly after that to Europe, to begin what since then became for us a life of "travel and vacation." Today, when not traveling, we divide our time between San Francisco, California and Mindanao where we have a modest vacation house that overlooks my birthplace. My wife, unable to watch me still fast asleep at 7 a.m. every day while she was getting ready for work, decided on retiring five months after I did, dropping an offer of promotion. On the day she retired from the City of San Francisco, then Mayor Willie L. Brown declared it "Nora V. Kabasares Day" in honor of her "distinguished service to the people of San Francisco." What did I get? A series of send-off parties, and as a finale, a dinner dance. There were a few plaques, certificates of recognition, testimonial letters, watches, clocks, tears and $900 pocket money. No, I didn't get a "day" - from Mayor Brown! My retirement committee obviously missed that one. About retirees, a novelist writes "you've got it made, pile of money, travel a lot, nice house, a vacation house elsewhere, kids grown, and doing good." But journalist Leo Rosenburg has these impish thoughts about retirement. "First you forget names, then you forget faces, then you forget to pull your zipper up, then you forget to pull your zipper down," he wrote. Noted playwright and author Robert C. Sheriff once wrote, "When a man retires and time is no longer a matter of urgent important, his colleagues present him with a watch." Like Sheriff, time, it seems to me, is a commodity that I have more than other emoluments we use to full advantage. It's hardly a mystery, we're no longer working, remember? When getting a weekend dinner reservation in a popular restaurant hinges on either luck or connection plus a long wait, besides (unless you're Henry Kissinger) we walk to the place on a weekday when it is nearly deserted. Chances are the maitre'd himself might do the honors of showing is to a table with a spectacular view of the Golden Gate bridge and openly express the hope that the place was satisfactory to us. We drop in at the supermarket between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on weekdays when the aisles are nearly empty of carts and checking out with a cartful of groceries is a breeze. We're already in standby position at the doors of shopping mall hours before it opens at 9 a.m. for the once a year store wide four-hour special sale. We travel during non-peak seasons when there are fewer crowds and get a "five-star" travel value for a "three-star" price. The travel industry has the habit of promoting discounted fares at a time when most who can well afford to cruise can't easily leave their jobs. So industry people would want us to pick up the slack. And we like it.