Zest for life
As part of the valedictory (and jocose) remarks in my
retirement speech four years ago, I mentioned two key themes.
To illustrate the pre-requisites for a contented and active
retirement and reasons why I was happy to retire, my first was a quotation from
the Roman poet Juvenal:
“mens sana in corpore sano” (a sound mind in a healthy
body).
My second theme was the
opportunity that retirement offers for a change of philosophy.
Like many other professions, town and country
planning requires its practitioners to look back, learning from the past, and
also to look forward trying to make places better.
Living in the moment can, therefore, be
difficult when you are working (and rearing a family).
Now, happily, all of that can
be filed away under yesterday’s agenda.
No longer is it necessary to wish my life away, waiting patiently for
the weekend, or longing for the arrival of hard-earned summer holidays.
New phrases and attitudes apply in retirement
such as - it’s time to live a little, spend precious time with our children and
our grand-children, now I can really explore hobbies and part-time interests
and enjoy them more, time to get a life.
The great luxury to be
savoured in retirement and what makes retired people so fortunate is the twin
blessing of independence and time. This,
in essence, means that we are free to do what we want whenever we want – within
the normal constraints.
Travelling, exploring,
visiting family and friends, staying healthy, learning new skills, doing some
voluntary work, having the time to read the weekend newspapers’ supplements
about holidays film and book reviews over leisurely breakfasts in the course of
the following week,– all of these are among the broad categories of activity that
are available to us all as retired people.
Travel
In recent years my wife and I have made conscious
efforts to visit parts of Ireland, England Wales and Scotland that we haven’t
been to before.
I recall, for instance,
learning on a trip to the UNESCO World Heritage city of Bath that the Roman
governor was collected each morning and transported on a hand-drawn carrier to
the Roman baths for his daily pre-work exercise.
So inspiring is this practice that I have
adapted his habit by visiting the gym most mornings, transporting myself (by
bike if the weather suits) before switching later on, energised, to other less strenuous
activities.
Last weekend we travelled to rural Suffolk in East
Anglia, staying with a friend from our student days in Bury St Edmunds. This town is known for its gigantic Abbey ruins
and renovated Cathedral together with links to the Magna Carta.
Our visit coincided, deliberately, with the
town’s annual Arts Festival. After two
evenings of music events, the next day we went to see the best preserved
medieval villages in England (such as the sixteenth century wool town of Lavenham).
It was a particular pleasure to meet one or
two Bury locals in the smallest pub in Britain, the Nutshell.
Just after Easter, we went to Berlin for a week to
watch my daughter and her husband running in the city’s half-marathon.
To return to the place where I ran my best
time in the full marathon distance twenty-two and a half years previously (and
three days before the reunification of Germany) was a veritable return trip to
a proverbial and historic memory lane.
Concessions
Not all of retired life, fortunately, necessitates
spending sprees.
Living on a pension, I
appreciate free stuff and discounts more than ever. I suspect that all of us cherish our bus
passes.
It is distressing to listen to
the almost manic argument of people like the historian David Starkey arguing
that bus passes should be scrapped at a time of growing national debt. Advocates of cost-cutting too often forget to
acknowledge the serendipitous benefits and the unintended savings gained for
other support organisations such as, in this case, the National Health Service,
as active pensioners travel, enjoying life to the full, and supporting local endeavours
and businesses.
I intend to use my bus pass to avail of the
impressive programme of events being staged in the UK City of Culture. Even the journey there (lauded by people
including Michael Palin) can be eagerly anticipated, now that the train-line
and service between Belfast and Derry-Londonderry (as everybody seems to be
calling the maiden city now) have been transformed.
Other free activities which I like include the
occasional concerts and interviews which BBC Northern Ireland records.
These include musical recitals and concerts
by the Ulster Orchestra for Radio 3, as well as interviews with leading
journalists conducted by Malachi O’Doherty.
Many other events are offered to retired people at concession rates,
such as the concerts of the Ulster Orchestra.
Day and evening classes
Pensioners can also avail of discounts on many other
activities.
Since retirement, for
example, I have begun attending classes at Queen’s University’s School of Open
Learning. The variety of classes is
almost endless.
So far I have been to
classes on subjects ranging from Travel Writing to Holiday Italian,
from Jazz through the Ages to The Gaelic Heritage of Ulster
Protestants, from Exploring Trees Woods
and Landscapes
around Belfast to Ulster
Place-names and Surnames.
And those are only a sample of what’s on offer. The special price for retired people is a real
boon, a stimulus to take advantage of academia’s unrivalled expertise.
Stranmillis College and the Crescent Arts Centre,
among others, also offer a great range of classes. I have been to yoga classes in one and my
wife and I have been to learn how to dance the lindy hop in another.
It may sound like a cliché, but it is hard to
contest the case that we are spoiled for choice.
Volunteering
The luxury of time provides opportunities to take
part as a volunteer in all kinds of activities.
My wife and I are eagerly looking forward to the World Police and Fire
Games taking place in August this year in various venues across Northern
Ireland. Following the example of the 2012
London Olympics, the organisers have recruited hundreds of volunteers to help
in the organisation.
My wife and I have
both been selected, she as a Games maker and my duties involving logistics.
We both volunteered with the recent Belfast City
Marathon which, incidentally, has the accolade of being the only UK marathon
outside London to have taken place every year since its inception without a
break since the start of the marathon boom in the early 1980’s.
We have also marshalled at other athletics events
in recent years including the Irish National Indoor Athletics Championships in
the Odyssey Arena.
My wife volunteers once a week working in a primary
school with children with special needs. Her job prior to retirement was as a special
needs teacher.
I have a weekly appointment also as a
volunteer. I meet a friend and we carry
out a wildlife survey for Lagan Valley Regional Park. There is something rewarding about being involved
in environmental volunteering, particularly at a time when there are concerns
about the impacts of climate on our wildlife (see the RSPB's State of Nature
report published on 22 May 2013).
More recently I have become a
director of the Regional Park’s management company.
Retirement has also provided me with the
uninterrupted time to read novels and, in the process, to be transported away
from the sometimes unpleasant realities of daily life.
There is one activity which combines this
pastime with the spirit of volunteerism, and that is World Book Night.
I am lucky to have been selected to
participate as a volunteer handing out free books each year since the project
began about four years ago.
In April this year, for example, 20,000 volunteers
across the UK were picked with each one selecting one of 20 titles of
well-known books (selected by an expert panel) to give away gratis to members
of the public. The main purpose is to
promote reading and to encourage people to pass on the book to friends after
they read it.
On this occasion I handed out my books to commuters
at a park and ride facility in south Belfast.
In a previous year my location was the foyer of my gym in the city
centre.
The book I distributed in April
this year was Sebastian Barry’s magnificent and moving “The Secret Scripture.”
Lest I present a picture of retirement that might
seem divorced from the real world, let me refer to another voluntary activity that
I have engaged in on a couple of occasions since retiring. When Government issues important reports, it
invites interested bodies to comment.
This includes you and me, the general public.
I recall about three years ago reading an article
in the Belfast Telegraph berating the Office of the First and Deputy First
Ministers for their draft policy on community relations. Thinking that a Government strategy could not
be this poor, I requested a copy and, to my horror, found that it was at least
as woeful as the journalist had described.
I submitted a detailed response, analysing the consultation report’s
flaws, making suggestions for improvement and emphasising why community
relations is a policy imperative which needs to be treated much more
seriously.
I have also published a blog
about the issue.
Retired people have a voice which needs to be
heard.
There is absolutely nothing
compulsory in responding to Government, it is entirely voluntary.
Given the crucial importance of community
relations, however, I regarded it as my civic duty to speak up, an opportunity
to partake in the democratic process in a constitutional manner, an example of
peaceful and active citizenship.
Sociability
There is one feature which is common to all of
these activities, and that is social contact.
Taking exercise in and outside the gym is good for the body, but it’s
also great fun involving banter and happy exchanges with other friends as well
as friendly gym staff.
The same applies to the further education classes
and to volunteering. When my friend and
I meet at dawn for our 90 minute survey, we rationalise and eventually solve Northern
Ireland’s interminable problems. For
light relief, we also resolve many of the issues of the global economy that
escape the attention of the regional administration.
Apart from the intrinsic value of the further
education classes, the aspect of sociability is invaluable. They also provide the chance to pursue new
interests and to brush up on dormant skill-sets. Occasionally a course can open a new horizon
leading pleasantly forward to another subject that one might not have
considered.
Conclusions
And so, now that work is an activity from the past and
with the children having left home, the question is what to do next.
Because my first retirement project was to take
part in a charity bike ride in the Middle East, one of the first things I did
was to buy two bikes, a mountain bike for shorter distances and a road bike for
longer training and non-competitive events known as sportives.
The 2-day Maracycle (Belfast-Dublin-Belfast) and the Lap the Lough (circuit of Lough Neagh) are examples.
The 2-day Maracycle (Belfast-Dublin-Belfast) and the Lap the Lough (circuit of Lough Neagh) are examples.
One of the next things I did was to make an
impulsive trip, my first ever to Cardiff.
I had always wanted to visit the Millennium Stadium. I didn't even have a ticket for the big game.
Ireland had last won the Grand Slam the year
before I was born.
How long do you have to wait?
How long do you have to wait?
About 60 seconds before kick-off a generous Welsh lady gave me her ticket and would not accept any money for it. That's another story.
In 2009, I was able to retire, do my patriotic duty,
and celebrate the occasion in style.
I do not ever want to lose my curiosity for discovering new cities, people and countries, nor the joy at discovering places which I have only read about in books and travel supplements. That includes British and Irish as well as exotic locations abroad.
That same purpose applies
to time spent at home. This is because
there are so many things to savour living in Belfast.
Our city has wonderful assets like the Lagan Valley
Regional Park and the Giants Ring; fantastic arts provision including the
Ulster Museum, The Queens Film Theatre, the Ulster Orchestra, venues like the
MAC (metropolitan arts centre), the Grand Opera House, the Waterfront Hall, the Lyric Theatre, the
cosy Black Box, and fantastic libraries.
Belfast showcases all kinds of artists and entertainers at
well-organised events such as the Arts Festivals at Queens University and the
Cathedral Quarter.
We have international
sport, as represented by the Ulster Rugby team and it’s a pleasant train ride
to Dublin (free for 65+ year olds) to watch Ireland in the 6 Nations.
And Belfast has easy accessibility to ports
and airports and to beautiful countryside.
We can have a great time at home as well exploring
places further away.
This is a way of
not just enjoying the facilities on our doorstep, but of supporting those
courageous enough to have provided venues and promoted events - and a small gesture
of local patriotism.
Finally, while I am slightly hesitant to mention
the unthinkable and ultimate motivator for making the most of retirement, this
quotation from the great American film-maker and humorist, Woody Allen,
expresses the point discreetly. The line
is:
“I’m
not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”
Putting this unmentionable thought another way,
staying active in mind and body seems to me to offer a good route to putting
off the inevitable for as long as possible.
You should now dismiss the ultimate motivator to a place deep within your
subconscious.
I began this essay with a quotation from the Roman
poet, Juvenal.
I’ll finish with one from another poetic Roman, Horace. It is:
I’ll finish with one from another poetic Roman, Horace. It is:
“Carpe
diem.”
©Michael
McSorley 2013