Some people wonder why I'm getting into so many things in these latter years of life–in retirement. Why all the new studies and hobbies and blogging and so on and so forth?
One reason is that while working for wages and striving to be a productive member of the workforce (rather than a mere tiddlywinks champion), I always felt guilty taking time out to work on non-work related interests and hobbies–even on weekends. Well, not always, but a lot. It's part of my upbringing and also an "American Working Professional" cultural kind of thing. Working in the information technology field of constant churn and progressive innovation wasn't easy. It was imperative I stay up on as much current technology and methodology as possible to remain competitive and readily employable.
In retirement, all of those obligatory responses are a thing of the past. Another reason I'm doing all of this stuff is an attempt to stave off dementia, and if I'm unable to accomplish that, to at least have stuff (colorful images, rich musical sounds, intriguing written words) to browse through (like this blog, posted musical compositions, photos, videos, works of "art", etc.) to spark memories that may just provide some feeble entertainment within my muddled old mind as it slowly proceeds to malfunction.
So my goals in undertaking all of these hobbies are as simple as they are selfish. Having worked my ass off for almost forty five years being productive for others, I feel absolutely zero guilt doing these fun things now to the exclusion of all else. First anniversary of retirement is still a few months away and this has been the most enjoyable phase of my existence to date. I can see no good reason to change or reverse this life vector now.
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