Coprolite Newsletter, February 2005

On January 24th, political pundit William Safire bade farewell to his New York Times readers after more than 3,000 columns. He's 75 years old, but he made it clear that he's not retiring.

Why not? Well, he explained that in part it was because of some advice he once got from James Watson, the Nobel Prize winner who helped discover the structure of DNA. Watson had said, "Never retire. Your brain needs exercise or it will atrophy."

So what's Mr. Safire doing if he's not retiring? He's starting a new career as chairman of the Dana Foundation. This group encourages scientific research and the spread of information relating to the study of the brain and the ethical questions involved. It's a long stretch from being a right-wing opinion monger, language critic, and novelist to becoming a leader in the scientific community. But Mr. Safire figures that this kind of stretching is exactly what a person needs to do from time to time. He explains this point with another bit of advice: "When you're through changing, you're through."

It's interesting how two seemingly contradictory ideas really do agree. Don't retire. But don't be afraid to hang up your spurs either. The key is to move on to something new and challenging.

The two bits of advice he mentions in his farewell column remind me of how a couple of similar insights had a powerful effect on my own career.

The first was something Somerset Maugham, the novelist, was supposed to have said on his 75th birthday. An interviewer asked him if 75 was a big milestone -- maybe even a little frightening. No, said the author. The biggest birthday for a man is his 30th, because after that you can't pretend you're a boy any more.

Well, I had the misfortune to read that quote when I was 29 years old. It jolted me into looking at my life. Although by then I was the father of four, in many ways I was still boyishly waiting for life to begin.

Back when I was in college, the student placement office had fixed me up with a part-time job to help pay my tuition. After I graduated, the firm I was working for offered me a full time job. It wasn't in the field I had majored in, but I took it anyway. It was clean, easy work. My bosses and co-workers were pleasant. Everything was fine, except that the work itself wasn't satisfying to me. Well, I figured that was okay. Some day I would get into a field I could be passionate about.

All of a sudden, here I was at 29 and Somerset Maugham was breaking the news that I wouldn't be a boy much longer. I decided that by age 30 I should be in a career that actually mattered to me. It was hard to give up a secure position and start out fresh, but I took the plunge. I was able to find work related to the major I had chosen in college. There was a slight cut in pay at first, but the other benefits were phenomenal.

Suddenly, I actually looked forward to going to work each day. No longer did a little case of sniffles keep me home. My attitude changed. My life changed. I stayed with that company for 26 years. I might have stayed longer, except for another pithy bit of insight. This one I came up with on my own.

After spending quite a while at the same low-level management job, I asked myself: "If you haven't changed your position in ten years, shouldn't you consider the possibility that you might be dead?"

I decided I preferred to feel alive. I took an early retirement from that corporation 15 years ago, at age 55. However, like William Safire, I certainly didn't think of it as a real retirement. I started a little home-based business, then added another one ten years later.

Sure, it's been a struggle. But again, the benefits are worth it. Meeting new challenges every day stimulates you mentally. Learning to repeatedly land on your feet has got to be good exercise for you physically.

I'm not saying that your post-retirement activity has to involve working in a regular job. There are so many opportunities to keep busy -- Habitat for Humanity houses to build, Meals On Wheels to deliver, grandchildren to baby-sit, classes to take.

The point is that, from first-hand experience, I can vouch for the value of Mr. Safire's attitude toward work. Retire early and often if you wish, but never really retire. Life is all about change, and when you're through changing, you're through.

On the other hand, as long as you keep moving, growing, and learning -- doing all those things that come so naturally to kids -- you'll be young in all the ways that really matter.

––Wayne Adams
wayne@coprolites.com
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