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.

Words have a way of sometimes getting us into trouble; take the word waffling. Now that word has a negative connotation. No question about it. However, it might indicate a pause in the mind to consider or think of alternatives.

No wonder that retirement comes as such a shock to the system for many of us. We have never had to really engage our mind independently of family, school or job. It is no wonder that a person can be 60 years old, very well educated, skilled and competent and yet say, "I don't even know who I am. I don't know what I am."

Retirement gives us time to pause with poets both living and dead. We could do worse than spend some time in their world. Poetry has a way of staying with us. It becomes part of our blood. It is concise, meaningful, and nourishing.