A Day in the Life of Chaos

Today a couple of my coworkers with ages close to half mine asked me what I would do retired.  Do I have a hobby?  Like do I like to build models or something? One suggested submarines; I don’t know why.  I immediately thought about an odd coworker I once had who would build WW2 models in his house while his equally odd children were homeschooled.  I always imagined him hunched over with one of those extendable magnifying glasses putting the final touches on an SS officer standing beside his Panzer tank.   My visions then led me to the Illinois Nazi in the Movie “The Blues Brothers” who in one scene is sitting at a desk painting a ceramic eagle.  I didn’t really know how to answer the question. I really don’t have any hobbies.  I wish I did, but they take so much space and I don’t even know what interests me.   I told him maybe I would become a re-enactor.   I was joking but honestly it seems like it would be fun in a guy sort of way.  On second thought, maybe I don’t want to go sit i

Something happens starting in your forties and moving on.  Up to this point we live our lives independently.  We spend years separating ourselves from our parents and learning how to function on our own.  Sure, parents are always there to help out with advice or to fix something but we are mostly focused on establishing our own lives and families. We have our own children now and they have so many needs.  We have jobs and mortgages to pay.  When something breaks we have to fix it, when its time to eat, we have to make it.  While all this is going on at some point in life our parents start to need us more.  It can happen very slowly and often we don't even perceive the change yet it happens. As I look around at my friends who share my age I can see it happening.  These days I see it quite brilliantly in the life of my father who is now in his 60's and has a mother in her 90's.   I see it in the life of my dear friend Peggy whose father in law spent his final days with them