Tales from the tomb - retirement

I've got a long rainy Sunday afternoon ahead of me, so here is one short tale from my time in the United States.

There was a man... unassuming, intelligent, reserved, and seemed as if the weight of the world has slowly etched at him over the years.

I'd run across him and a few other spooks at a little well-known coffee shop near the edge of Yale campus while picking up a cup of Black Magic (the place's name for the darkest and most amazing coffee they had available).

We'd speak sometimes. I've always been attracted to intelligent conversation. I steered clear of people under a certain IQ, which in the US and in those circles meant that I was steering myself directly into the underbelly of the government and industry. After all, they harvest and absorb the intelligent from the population like a farmer would harvest corn.

But that's my burden to bear.

Here is his:

He spoke about retirement one day as I was sitting there slowly sipping my coffee making sure it would last longer than necessary. I was trying to avoid buying a second cup.

He sounded excited, like the excitement had pushed any nervousness or lingering concerns to the side. Then he paused, and it was obvious that he was thinking about what retirement actually meant. And he became quiet.

But still, the undertone of excitement remained: he would retire in two more weeks.

Roughly two weeks later, I was walking past the Yale New Haven Hospital at a late hour. I've always been a night owl and loved the peace of the city once even the trouble makers were mostly settled in for the night.

Then I saw him.

He was stumbling out from a hospital driveway intended for deliveries. And he was ranting and screaming. This man who I had never seen act in any other way than composed.

He said that the CIA had put something in his head. Then he went stumbling down the street.

I saw him one more time at the coffee shop, still disheveled, and then never again.

What did I take away from having witnessed it? When compounded with other retirement events I've been there for, and the pilfering of retirement and other funds, as well as watching how much the ones who remain stay desperately dug in well past retirement age, the lesson I learned is simple:

There is no retirement.

Last Edited by TlvmmCpoft on 04/25/2021 06:08 AM