Who Knew It Would Change That Fast?

When I retired the first time in July 2009, there was an office party with a sheet cake at the transportation and logistics company. The founder’s son telephoned me with well wishes. I wasn’t done working at age 57, yet knew where I worked for the previous 25 years would be seen only in the rear-view mirror. I never looked back.

When I retired for the second time, in April 2020 during the pandemic, I had little idea that would be it. Our household managed to avoid COVID-19 and my health was better than it had been for a long time, and still is. Funny how when you stop being with people, fewer upper respiratory diseases are contracted. Now that the coronavirus is normalized, I thought there would be something next. So far, most of my work has been centered around writing and home life. There has been no next and I need one.

With five COVID-19 vaccinations, I am as protected as a person can get. Recently, most friends who contract the virus don’t die from it unless there are complicating health factors. It seems a lot of people continue to test positive for COVID-19. The virus is our permanent companion and a reminder of our mortality.

I visit the doctor’s office more frequently, although that is partly because I have extra time available. I know there are benefits included with Medicare that have no co-pays. I press the clinic to deliver those services. Based on their current financial condition, they could use the revenues. The end result is my health seems closely monitored and I’m ready for what’s next.

So what am I waiting for? In part, for the second coming:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst   
Are full of passionate intensity.

Of course, this is William Butler Yeats from The Second Coming. In a similar and more personal way, I wrote about things falling apart to the chair of the county Democratic Party after our last central committee meeting, “I haven’t found anyone to replace me on the central committee yet. There is almost no interest in doing extra things in politics or anything else. We, as a society, didn’t used to be this way.” While Yeats was writing about World War I, a lot of anarchy has been loosed in society in 2023. There is not a lot of visible conviction.

I’ll get through this patch of anarchy and find passionate intensity again, no doubt. I just wish I had realized earlier how fast everything would change.