Should you Work until your Dying Day?

The question is: should you work until your dying day or should you retire and enjoy a few years of relaxation without working stress?

Richard Holbrooke, United States Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan died today as the result of a torn aorta.  He was 69 years old.  He became ill just this past Friday while working at the State Department.  I believe he really liked his work in foreign affairs but when did he just relax? Couldn’t he have focused on a golf course where the outcome was not crucial or perhaps become an amateur photographer traveling to distant places around the world?

Perhaps some of us really do love our jobs so much that we find it difficult to retire.  My Dad retired at the age of 70.  He was a structural engineer who held a masters degree from the University of Toronto.  His last full-time employment was at Ralph M. Parsons Company in Pasadena, California.  They had asked him to retire.  Following that he continued to work part-time, for another two years, on a contract basis at Atomics International.  He didn’t need the money but he loved the work.  Watching him in that transition to full retirement, I could see that he was unhappy with the spare time he had on his hands.  He was lonely for the office.

Now I have been retired for over four years and sometimes wish I had more things to occupy my life.  Then I recall, it was up at 5 AM for a one hour drive to an office.  Even as I wrote those words, I know it is fun to reminisce but never mind.  I enjoy reading Al Martinez’s (retired from the Los Angeles Times) bi-weekly column in the local newspaper (Los Angeles Daily News).  He doesn’t write anything complicated but seems to enjoy his work.