Our Rational Nature Calls On Us to Work Not To Retire
Building on the idea from our last post that maybe it's better not to think of retiring at all, we'll continue digging into the true nature of work. But before we do, perhaps we can begin with a contrasting view of work that can, for some, maybe many of us, be all to familiar - a primarily negative concept of work, as meaning an absence of unemployment, where: ...a job is something which the individual is entitled to receive from the community rather than something which he does for the community, and our gloomy recognition that it will usually be monotonous and soul-destroying, filling the worker's time and providing him with a livelihood, but otherwise giving him little personal satisfaction or none. (from The Rule of Peace : St Benedict and the European Future , by Christopher Derrick) The flip side of this negative view is what one might consider the pollyanna view of "You can be anything you want to be," where work is the great fulfillment of all your dre...