The second of my retrospective retirement blogs republished. Originally posted as part of The Summerhouse Years in 2013.
I’m sitting in a railway station – ticket – destination – etc. I’ve just finished my course on blogging by the excellent Gentle Author. A new venture for my retirement – maybe. A potential part of the jigsaw of my retirement. This would be what might loosely be described as the cerebral part of the plan. This to run alongside the physical part, in my case planting a vineyard (more of this in a later blog). It’s all about balance I reckon. The physical and the cerebral. A sensible person would probably play golf and read paperbacks in Marbella, not me, no siree Bobby!
I’m going to blog but wait what’s that terrible foreboding? The one that hangs in the air and obscures the iron pillars made by Butterley Company from Derbyshire? It is the cloak of commitment. Is this not the very thing that retired people are seeking to avoid? To get out from under the pressure to produce? I’ve made a commitment to blog once a week for the next year. That’s a little frightening.
What am I going to write about? The bright days of summer maybe but the long dark days of winter, hmm. What if nothing happens that I can write about? Do I make it up? What if I can’t think of anything to make up? Do I do things simply so that I can write about them, kind of pretending that I just happened to do them and am quite accidentally now blogging about them? What will those events be? Can I buy a book for ideas but then which book would I buy?
Maybe I’m more a tweeting kind of guy. Short, idiot type tweets. I’ve just changed my incontinence pads. Or even Facebook, just photos of me changing the pads, no words at all! There’s a lot of options if you want to put your life out there, but I’ve tried both of the above – no good. So, to blogging. But maybe blogging is just too hard, especially at my age when at least half my brain is mashed potato.
But wait, man up. Don’t go quiet, it’s a dark night as Dylan once said but as Dylan also said is a bird free from the sky? So is a man truly free in retirement? Is a retirement world really a world free of commitment? Probably not so I’ll make the commitment – once a week, Tuesdays, you read it here first. Follow the yellow brick road. Did that sound like the voice of a much younger man? An old man trying to sound hip? Yep, blogging could be hard.
When/where did Mr Dylan say its a dark night? Worryingly I don’t recognise the source.
That’ because you’re thinking understandably of the wrong Mr Dylan, the one I’m using said – do not go quietly into that dark night, at least I hope he did.
Somehow I doubt you will find yourself at a loss for words. Blogging will be a good “outside” balance for all the “inside” thoughts, feelings and experiences of retirement. Go at it “old guy”.
What a gift… a whole years worth of knowledge about retirement before I even get there! Don’t worry what to write about, it sounds to me like you will just have the ideas emerging as you go along. In the meantime, can you do me a Shiraz Reserve for under a tenner?