Lately, I’ve been hearing from retirees who feel like they no longer have a role that matters in life. It’s a testament, perhaps, to how much work dominates our lives, at least in the U.S.
Even several years removed from it all, I’m still conscious of the weekly rhythm of work — all day every day Monday through Friday with Saturday to recover and Sunday to get ready all over again.
Decades can go by like that, with scarcely a meaningful break. Then somewhere along the way you take a vacation or a business trip or you get ill or some other “life event” disrupts the routine.
This is often called a mid-life crisis.
Suddenly the whole pattern makes no sense and you return to the office afterward disoriented and confused. Or maybe you are ecstatic and refreshed — which may make more sense but is just as weird to witness or experience.
Ultimately, as it evaporates with time, you have to measure your career by the impacts you’ve had — for better or worse. You’re not going to get a second time around on that merry-go-round.
The people I know who have retired are, like me, struggling to feel like we are still relevant, that our lives matter. Some are volunteering, finding new interests, pursuing long-delayed dreams.
Meanwhile, almost like it is so instilled in us we can’t shake it, the industrial clock just keeps ticking. Even though it no longer ticks toward the start of yet another dreadful workweek it ticks toward our ultimate checkout time.
Hopefully we figure out our place in all of this by then.
TODAY’s HEADLINES:
Pro-Moscow separatists once marched in this Ukraine border city. Now it’s standing against Russia. (WP)
Explaining NATO and Ukraine: How a 30-year-old debate still drives Putin today (NPR)
Ukrainian reservists gear up in case of conflict with Russia (Reuters)
As Russian Troops Mass in Belarus, a Ukraine Border Is Largely Undefended — From the border, it’s a fast 140 miles down a newly paved highway to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, but only a few troops stand guard. (NYT)
U.S. says Russia ‘clearly’ now has capability to attack Ukraine (WP)
Ukrainian schools train for bomb alerts (Reuters)
VIDEO: Pentagon: Russia Has More Than 100,000 Troops at Ukraine’s Borders (NYT)
How a Russian invasion of Ukraine would reverberate around the world (CNN)
The latest Covid variant is 1.5 times more contagious than omicron and already circulating in almost half of U.S. states (CNBC)
Biden Had Strategy to Beat Covid-19. Then Variants Arrived. (WSJ)
The Coronavirus Will Surprise Us Again (Atlantic)
A new COVID-19 variant surge ‘will happen again,’ experts say (Deseret News)
On Patrol: 12 Days With a Taliban Police Unit in Kabul (NYT)
Stuck without housing, Afghan evacuees languish inside D.C.-area hotel rooms (WP)
State Department delivers crushing news to Fulbright scholar hopefuls in Afghanistan (ABC)
Taliban stress efforts to improve female education (NHK)
U.S. Blocks $130 Million in Aid for Egypt Over Rights Abuses (NYT)
Trump facing legal, political headwinds as he eyes comeback (AP)
‘No Regrets’ Is No Way to Live — It’s tempting never to look back, but we’re hard-wired to focus on our mistakes. Rather than deny them, we can lift ourselves up by seeing them in a new light. (WSJ)
Object found in the Milky Way 'unlike anything astronomers have seen' (Phys.org)
SEC’s crypto crusade at risk in looming legal battles (Politico)
Ubisoft execs: “Gamers are always right”—yet they somehow “misunderstand” NFTs (Ars Technica)
Cryptocurrency industry fights proposed NY moratorium. Here is what's at stake. (Politico)
San Francisco has the best sports teams in the U.S., at least according to one analysis (SFC)
Joni Mitchell pulls music from Spotify in stand with Neil Young against covid misinformation (WP)
Spotify Isn’t Really About the Music Anymore (Atlantic)
The Best Wordle Starting Word Has Been Figured Out With (Computer) Science (Gamespot)
Art Spiegelman sees the new ban of his Holocaust graphic novel ‘Maus’ as a ‘red alert’ (WP)
Scientists regrow frogs’ amputated limbs in massive leap for regenerative medicine (EuroNews)
Stuff On TV Show Always Going Wrong (The Onion)
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