It was our wish today to welcome the new retirees and provide a quality experience similar to the one we extended last year. On that occasion everyone was comfortable, engaged and upon leaving were ready for more. This year we looked to find and recruit talented new Executive Board leaders to take on our educational, philanthropic and informative mission.

One thing on which we were all agreed was the degree of gratitude we felt for another retirement school year. Some came to us for the first time, while others with less than five years immersion in their redirection experience raised hands when asked. Members this year also had come for ten or more beginnings, while a noticeable number of familiar faces indicated by their presence they’ d enjoyed decades of membership.

Breaking into smaller groups, we were given pens, post-its and paper, on which all were asked to enumerate the our most prioritized aspirations.

All of us had at one time worked for the Brentwood School District in careers for which we were most grateful. Life is a continuum of past, present, future rounded with a beginning and end. Unfolding in life experience from the inside out we’ve learned how each of us is as different from one another as we are the same. Moving forward now with renewed feelings of hope, fear, love and longing we are faced with the universal human condition of not having any idea of what may lie ahead.

We called our suggested task a “Bucket List” and were informed by one participant that they didn’t believe in bucket lists yet gave us their list of priorities anyway. We asked that the post-its be attached to a “Yellow Brick Road” comprising a metaphoric life (road) stretching across the gap on a bridge joining past and future. Everyone shared orally with their small group what they’d included on their list.

Parts of a bridge waiting to be constructed by volunteers lay in pieces and scattered across tables in front of the room, as Security Staff from the library hurriedly prepared a Smart Board on which was to be projected a site we never had a chance to appreciate (for the same reason that my former students were deprived of segments of overly ambitious lesson plans when I was forever challenged by technology), here again short of time I had to conclude the experience prematurely.

The lyric “I’ve Got the World on a String” made an obtuse reference to physicists ‘String Theory’ and the way in which we are all connected by being part of something larger than our perceived selves and the particular galaxy in which we’ve found ourselves in the ‘Milky Way’
(Click here) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rENyyRwxpHo

Had we proceeded as planned and the Bridge with its’ ‘Yellow Brick Road’ been paved with all those good intentions (Is it true as some say that the road to Heaven is paved with good intentions?) we might have observed the call for volunteers bringing us the next generation of ROBS leaders cooperating in building the bridge model connecting our former working lives with our current, purposive retiree futures.

That lack of time also prevented our enjoying the closure we envisioned. Life, they say, is less about arriving at a destination or achieving a goal as it is a process of reaching for a goal in pursuit of a prize. It is about enjoying the trip, not about arriving at our destination. With this in mind see what was missed at our meeting, This is Sean Connery’s reading of C. P. Cavafy’s poem Ithaca
(Click here) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n3n2Ox4Yfk  

Perhaps you’re wondering what respondents wrote The following items were inclusive of replies of retirees (55 yrs and older ) to those in their 90’s. Here’s literally what we found written on the 124 paste-it bricks fixed to the “Yellow Brick Road” bridging past to future. Thanks to Phyllis Goodwin for this tally.

23 TIME - Reconnecting w/ FAMILY and FRIENDS  
Enjoy family -  Become a grandmother - Spend time with my mom and grandkids -  Help my nephew reach his potential - Visit my sister more - Take care of my sister and dog -  Emotionally support my niece and her family -  Stay close to my dear, old friends - Reconnect w/ old friends - Spend time w/ family -  See my son, back from Saudi - Enjoy life and my family - Enjoy each day to the fullest - Attend grandchildren’s graduation from Grad School and Med School - Live to see my granddaughter graduate from HS, College – Live to be 103 - Keep involvement w/ kids - Forgive totally those who tried to destroy my life with their decisions - See my 2 grandsons get married - Attend all special events of granddaughters - Spend time w/ precious grandbabies -  Spend lots of time with my 2 kids - Make sure I keep my relationships with those I have and care for each other - Visit my sister-in-law and friend for Thanksgiving -

18 Get ORGANIZED                               
De-clutter obsolete stuff - Purge unnecessary items in my environment – organize - Complete items that need finishing in my house - windows, new electrical, deck, downstairs bathroom, new driveway -  Organize my house -  Organize my house - Organize house - Re-organize house -  Organize and paint garage -  Leave everything in order, especially my office -  Clean out closet - Give away clothes and shoes - Go through family things so that they can be given to grandkids to keep these things in family -  Clean up my treasures -  Update my kitchen -  Clean out my cellar - Feng Shui my house - Give away and clean out all un-used items, tv’s, electronics, etc.

16 HEALTH – Integration of Body, Mind, & Spirit                     
Read more - Read fiction and mysteries - Get in shape – join a gym - Live each day to the fullest - Live each day as if it was my last – health -  be healthy- be healthier -stay healthy - Maintain good health - -stay active - Live to be 100 -  Take care of health – reach 100 -
Live pain free w/ better health - Keep up with Dr’s visits - Learn to relax - Relax w/ no guilt

15 FINANCES                                         

Finances -  Financial affairs - Financial affairs - Estate planning - Estate planning – Start & finish legal affairs -  financial affairs in order -  Finances finally consolidated - Finalize necessary financial papers -  Organize financial papers -  Have financial security -  Finish putting legal affairs in order -  Put financial and personal matters in order -  Put legal documents, in order – living will, health care proxy, change will) - Finances –getting them in order as well as write out my final wishes of service and what I want to wear

15 Member GOALS                        
Learn computers - Write another book - Take lessons & pilot a plane - Treat myself to a new car - Get a convertible -  Become a gourmet cook -  Learn another language - Be a successful author -  Have a retired teacher yard sale -  Attend more Broadway Shows - Take an art and photography class - Always have food for (Project Hope) the Sustrins - See all the children I have tutored graduate from HS and College – I don’t believe in “bucket lists” - Silence

14  TRAVEL                                                
Take trip to Italy - Take my family to Italy - Spend more time in London -  Go back to England to see family - More visits to family in France -  Take my family to Cuba - Bring my family to Panama -  Bring family to Hawaii - Go back to Grand Canyon - Establish a warm weather home in Florida - Take a Danube cruise - Take riverboat cruise somewhere in Europe - Travel ; do more things w/ my wife -  Take my 22 year old granddaughter on a trip to Europe

11 FINAL PLANS         
Plan funeral  - Make a will - Make a will - Make new will - Finish my will - Arrange my own funeral -  Get all important papers in order -  - Take care of my funeral arrangements -  Visit funeral director and make arrangements -  Update all papers so kids have everything first hand.

9 GENEOLOGY                                       
Work on genealogy - Trace family tree - Organize my genealogy -  Make our family history scrapbooks for our children -  Write “My Story” for my granddaughters to have - Collate photo albums - Organize family photos and make CD’s for our children -  Put pictures in photo albums -  Organize photographs..

3 VOLUNTEER                   
Do volunteer work – Do good works - Volunteer

                      Bridge approach to the past                                                             Bridge off ramp to the future