Clarifications

I feel I need to clarify a few things for those of you who may not know me so well. First of all, in case you haven't already figured it out, what I write here is total stream of consciousness, which is pretty much how most of my expression is. Of course I revise and edit as I go along, before I hit that little "publish post" button, but, like Garrison Keillor, I'm working from a theme each day, not a script. Secondly, when I said that I have been thinking about retirement since my first day of full-time work, I meant post-graduate school full-time work.

Before going to graduate school I worked several years as a full-time clerk at the library. I wasn't thinking about retirement back then. I was just thinking about all of the things I could be doing, seeing and learning about if I didn't have to work to support myself. That is why I was totally dumbfounded when one of my student assistants, an independently wealthy young lady, said she needed a job so she wouldn't be bored! Even as a child I didn't understand or accept the concept of boredom. I always figured if I was bored, it was because I chose to be. I knew if I didn't like my present environment, and couldn't get out of it, I could always imagine my way out. And I always did. I love my very active imagination!

Over the years I have met many other people who need to work; people who wouldn't know what to do otherwise. That's all right. I understand it now. I'm just not one of them.