Maybe the existentialists had it wrong. The real life of the absurd would be if we were to live forever. The idea of accepting our own death is a comforting step to take. It relieves us of youthful misconceptions and philosophical rationalizations that are not as substantial as they earlier seemed.

Modern life demands mobility for education and employment. The family is uprooted. The extended family is a casualty. It all seems pretty academic until it happens to you. Suddenly, one day, it all becomes very personal. What to do?

This is one of the greatest things about retirement. When we are working at going to school or going to work our lives are pretty well filled up. We don't have time or energy to really consider some of the basics of our lives.

Thoughts about increasing demands on our social security system brought a former vision of mine to the surface. Human Touch was the title of my Master’s thesis work. I wrote up a proposal to the State of Alaska for the creation of a program that would benefit seniors, students and society.

When I was a kid my thoughts roamed on to include ideas that when these old people die off we will be left with only people who have been educated to rely on the scientific method and all that it offers. Now I am one of those older people and I read, hear and see things in the press that seem completely out of sync with science and the belief in reason.

Retirement itself involves a degree of risk. We don't know if we will be happy or not. We don't know if we will have enough income to live comfortably. We don't know if we will have enough income to last until our death since we never know how much time we have yet to live.

Retirement allows us time to expand our horizons. New experiences may be closer than we think. You might want to check out your local courthouse and find out what trials are scheduled to start soon. Here is the story of our experience.

We wanted a rig that was relatively safe. We wanted airbags and all of that other fancy stuff. And as well as safety we wanted a bit of comfort. When one decides to take a road trip that could last a few months, comfort becomes important.

Deciding to see America from the road is an easy choice to make when one enters retirement. It’s a big country and to drive around it takes a lot of time; time that most folks don’t have until they retire.

"Why" has to be among the first words we learn. Little children have a way of repeating it over and over until we just wind up saying, "It just is. I don't know why.” It is strange how this simple exchange seems to hold over the years.