WHEN I WAS A LITTLE BITTY BABY:

Reflecting with senior colleagues upon retirement, we heard personal stories of profound joy, sadness, complexity, and relief accompanying this new state for most of us.  Retirement for some is a delight.  Finally an opportunity to do what we want to, when we want to, where we want to, and how we want to!  Psychologists are highly conscientious, productive, high achieving, hard working folk.  Many of the shared "reflections" described having worked, almost excessively, for most of their lives.  What a relief when there are no bosses, systems, or organizations that dictate and limit how we spend our time.  On the other hand, that very absence of structure can trigger anxiety and doubt.  So for some, retirement is also like being in a room without walls.  Don Freedheim referred to being retired as being without an institution that frames our activities and guides how we spend our time.  Previously, as we went to grade school, attended universities, worked, met partners, had children and hobbies, and became grandparents we had rules of the institution to follow.  While we lived and worked in many different settings, all had rules, procedures, customs.  We are now on our own in retirement.  We finally have control of personal time.  There are no rules regarding what we should be doing.  What should rule-followers be doing when there are no rules to follow?  That is the question.  If we are not psychologists, who are we?  Just about all of us deal, though in individual fashions, with identity issues.

For some, deciding which activities are most personally meaningful is a huge challenge.  Many report not having enough time.  Opportunities to be involved in activities and tasks eventually become unending.  When Ruth retired: "I wanted for the first time in my life to do what I really wanted to do, and I learned that is difficult for me.  I thought this is now my time.  Whoops!!  My time for what?  I needed to stop doing and to hear myself… to pay attention to what I really wanted to do.  I know now more about what I do not want to do."  Visionary sage Gene Shapiro:  "If you possibly can, never retire!"

That is not to say that retired or mostly retired colleagues in their individually creative way aren't living full and varied lives.  Many (Jay Benedict) truly love being psychologists and don't really want to stop working.  Shortly after retiring from the U.S. Senate staff, Patnoticed he was no longer in the once all-important information loop and missed the action affecting psychology practice, education, and research.  Integral to his identity was being creative, innovative, and trail blazing.  Accordingly, he enthusiastically accepted the intriguing opportunity to mentor the next generation of practitioners (nursing, law, pharmacy, and psychology) in engaging in interdisciplinary (e.g., integrated), patient-centered practice from a university base.  Having "practiced" health policy for nearly four decades, he will now engage in shaping its theoretical/philosophical application.

            How our senior colleagues relate their experiences, reflects their activities and orientations while working.  Their look at retirement parallels work perspectives.  Ed Sheridan, an educational administrator (Dean and Provost) thoughtfully considers the many realistic and practical issues that require attention in preretirement and retirement, namely the need for collaboration and in-depth discussion with a partner about a multitude of life style preferences, health care concerns likely to arise, realistic appraisal of financial needs, etc.  Rod Baker, former VA chief psychologist, accustomed to employment in a large organization known for structure and "red tape" now follows his own path in retirement: "My definition of a 'good retirement'….  Doing what you want, as much as you want, and whenever you want.  And, if you are not doing that, you only have one person to talk to."

            Choices made by our colleagues regarding their retirement activities are varied, and naturally consistent with preretirement beliefs and values.  How important is it to continue working in some fashion as a psychologist?  Many in the field just loved being psychologists.  It is difficult to give up that identity completely, especially for those who have been leaders in the field and have devoted countless hours.  Time devoted to the profession may be inversely related to one's number of hobbies.  Almost everyone, including those no longer working as psychologists, very much wants to continue being productive, in the sense that work and doing things to promote better communities bring meaning and vitality to life.  APA State Association guru Mike Sullivan: "I have a very different take on retiring, meaning having productive goals to accomplish.  For me it's meant a whole new horizon of productivity in direct community service (volunteering)!"  Many, like Ruth and Linda Garcia-Shelton, feel blessed to finally find themselves reconnecting with family and friends, having previously felt somewhat guilty about perhaps placing their budding careers a bit higher than their families.  Many women of their era struggled with work-family balance, although at that time society did not quite frame the underlying pressures so delicately and distinctly.

            An evolving, although still almost unspoken theme, is the undercurrent of existential urgency – realization of the mortality of ourselves and those we love.  Reflecting upon the impact of mortality is complicated, partly because the underlying values, beliefs, and meanings are typically not discussed in our culture.  In fact, we actively avoid focusing upon them.  But they are there.  All of our lives we've been busy achieving and meeting responsibilities and expectations to -- do well in school, raise children, earn a living, be socially and culturally engaged – and then, we finally retire.  We haven't been trained for this.  And what makes it so urgent and scary for some, is that we also have the awareness that life is moving along very rapidly and that this period is the last time ever to live in a way that is personally important and meaningful.  In Them Old Cotton Fields Back Home.  Aloha,

 

Ruth Ullmann Paige, former APA Board of Directors; & Pat DeLeon, former APA President

California Psychological Association – May, 2012