ART OF RETIREMENT - Mantra for the Retired and Senior Citizens

ART OF RETIREMENT

Mantra for the Retired and Senior Citizens

Philosophical Musings of a Retired Veteran

By

VIKRAM KARVE

When you are young – you have a lot of desires.

As you travel through the journey of life – you fulfill and satisfy those desires.

Also – with age – some desires go away on their own.

By the time you retire – most of your desires are satisfied and only a few remain.

If you are a retired senior citizen – you will have very few unsatisfied desires which you want to fulfill before you die.

It is possible that you have only one desire left to satisfy before you die.

I have only one desire – to tell the world all the stories (which are in my mind) that I want to tell – and that is why I try to spend most my time doing just that – writing and blogging my stories for the world to read. 

  

It will be best for me to relate a story – probably apocryphal – to metaphorically illustrate what I want to say:

THE STORY OF EMPEROR ALEXANDER AND PHILOSOPHER DIOGENES

Alexander the Great – the Emperor of the World – who had conquered all lands and seas – and who considered himself the “son of a god” – and before whom all knelt in veneration and reverence – one day – early in the morning – was riding with his Army through Greece.

Suddenly – Alexander saw a man lying naked in the sand by the side of a river basking in the early morning sunlight.

Curious – Alexander rode towards the naked man. 

The man who was basking in the sun seemed to be totally indifferent to the distinguished visitor and his entourage.

The naked man remained lying down on the sand – and he made no attempt to get up. 

He ignored his Emperor – Alexander the Great – who was sitting majestically on his horse.

An angry soldier shouted at the naked man, “You there – do you know in whose presence you are?”

“Who is he?” the naked man said lazily.

The man did not stir – he continued to lie down naked on the sand – and he made no move to get up.

The astonished soldier proclaimed, “Wretched man – you are in the presence of His Exalted Highness Alexander the Great – Emperor of the World.”

“Oh,” the naked sunbather said impassively, continuing to lie down. 

Emperor Alexander was baffled by the strange behaviour of this naked man lying down on the sand, so he asked him, “Who are you?” 

The naked man casually looked up at Alexander the Great mounted imposingly on his horse – he said to Alexander, “I am Diogenes.”

“Ah – so you are the philosopher Diogenes!” Alexander exclaimed, “I have always wanted to meet you – I have heard so many stories about you. Well, Diogenes – I am impressed. I will grant you anything you wish. What do you desire? Just tell me. Diogenes – you ask for anything in the world – and it will be yours.”

Still lying naked on the sand – Diogenes said to Alexander, “Please could you move a little bit to the side and get out of my sunlight – because you are blocking the sun – and spoiling my sunbath. That is all I want from you…”  

RETIREMENT MANTRA FOR RETIRED/SENIOR CITIZENS

At that point of time – Diogenes had only one desire – he wanted Sunlight.

If you introspect – you too will realize that you have only one desire left – which you want to satisfy.

I told you that – at present – I have only one desire which I want to satisfy: “To tell the world the stories I want to tell” – and that is why I try to spend all my time and effort in writing and blogging – so that I can disseminate my stories to the world.

When I was working – I did write – but since I had other “desires” to satisfy (and responsibilities to fulfill) – I could not totally focus on writing and blogging.

Now that I have retired – with all other desires satisfied – and responsibilities fulfilled – I can focus all my efforts on writing and blogging to fulfill my remaining desire “to tell the world the stories I want to tell”.

And once this last remaining desire is fulfilled – I will be ready for “departure”.

But – my dear friends – don’t say goodbye to me right away – for I am in no hurry – since I have many stories to tell – and fulfilling this last desire may take a long long time... 

VIKRAM KARVE

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Disclaimer:

1. These are my personal views based on my observations and life experiences and the stories and examples quoted may be apocryphal.

2. All stories in this blog are a work of fiction. Events, Places, Settings and Incidents narrated in the story are a figment of my imagination. The characters do not exist and are purely imaginary. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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This Story of Alexander and Diogenes told by me many times in articles and in my blogs - for example at url: http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2010/10/power-and-desire.html