New Career Ventures

It’s amusing to admit that I’ve been “headhunted” three times in the past month. Damn! Where were those offers ten or twenty years ago? I politely turned them down. I am employed well past when most of my peers are retired and have no desire to head up a start-up program or guide a thriving program to greater heights. Frankly, discussing this sort of stuff is taboo at the dinner table.
But it does raise the question of whether, besides heading out to the shop to carve, I might retain some energy for interesting work assignments.

I gave it some thought and developed guidelines for my future employment ventures. My stress levels are low, my pay is good, and no one gives me a hard time. I’m good! Beyond eighty, though, things turned fuzzy. But then, as I often do, I turn to the coastal traditions I’ve encountered here in New England. I realized that I could set up shop as the retired know-it-all willing to give you wanted or unwanted advice, anecdotes, or blithering idiocy on demand. You know, like the Gabby Johnson character in Blazing Saddles.

I’ll model myself on some retired lobstermen or boatbuilders I’ve known. An incredible mix of wisdom and drivel is likely to pass their lips, and by turns, it can be strongly acid, witty, or dumb. OK, I know many will suggest that I’ve been doing this for years. But that is just jealousy.

I’m pioneering a new career where I get to sit around, drink coffee, and say absurd things.

Wait…that sounds an awful like being in politics.