The Luckiest Generation

When the court system closed last March I went from 0-60 instantly. At first it was disorienting and I was a bit stir crazy. But, “It will only last till the end of April,” the initial reopening date, “I can d6 that,” I told myself. Then there were rumors the lockdown would extend to June 1. I wrote here, “I don’t know if I can do that.”  But as the weeks went by I kinda liked not working. I had to give up my office, I had to let my secretary go, there was no point in advertising, and so instantly my expenses were cut drastically. My two children were grown and semi-independent financially (the presence of young children underfoot turns out to be the key stressor for younger couples); I owned my condo outright, owned my car outright, was not spending miney on gasoline,  and didn’t socialize. I had no expenses and could well manage on my state pension. Like Eddie Murphy in Trading Places Intook a quick survey of my circumstances and decided I could keep doing this. So I stopped taking new clients and gradually, seamlessly, stress-free, the decision made itself. I retired. 0ade 5tse3f, 5 retired.

There have been two articles in the New York Times in the last week on coping with COVID. One is a review of the studies that have been done (My experience is the rule for those like me); the 6ther a profile of an older man and hus experience. Ah, we Boomers have had charmed lives we neither earned or deserved.

Why Older People Managed to Stay Happier Through the Pandemic

New surveys over the last year show that the ability to cope improves with age.

...age and emotional well-being tend to increase together, as a rule, even as mental acuity and physical health taper off.

The finding itself is solid. Compared with young adults, people aged 50 and over score consistently higher, or more positively, on a wide variety of daily emotions. They tend to experience more positive emotions in a given day and fewer negative ones, independent of income or education...

He Went to 105 Shows in One Season. Now He Watches TV.

There are lots of people, many of them older, for whom the arts are a way to stay connected to the world — intellectually, emotionally and socially.

...

A former professor of management and statistics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, he is accustomed to solitude, having lived alone for a long time.

He pauses to reflect. “It’s OK,” he added. “I have a nice apartment. I’ve got the TV set up. 

...

He’s a pensioner, and money is tight...

...

[Edward T.] Minieka never had much use for television. For years he had a hand-me-down black-and-white he used to watch the Oscars and the elections, but when the tubes started leaking, he threw it out. At the start of the pandemic, a friend offered him her old TV — she was upgrading — and he decided it was time to hook up cable and figure out streaming.

He’s bingeing “Downton Abbey,” “The Crown” and “Brideshead Revisited.” 

...

...will he go back to live performance? He’s not sure.

“I’ve kind of gotten used to sitting at home, and not paying for tickets, or spending a couple of nickels to have things streamed,” he said. “And it used to be you had an 8 o’clock curtain, and if I wasn’t there they’d close the doors. Now I can start whenever I want, and I don’t have to wear a matching tux.”

...

...he says he thinks of this as a second retirement, and that he might just move into a retirement community and stop going out...

“I was running at full steam, going out every night,” he said. “Suddenly it all stops, and I adjust. In a way, it puts a coda on that part of my life.”

...it’s nice to end something when you don’t know it’s the closing night.”