{"id":643,"date":"2024-02-20T03:39:12","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T03:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/?p=643"},"modified":"2024-02-20T03:39:12","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T03:39:12","slug":"retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/?p=643","title":{"rendered":"RETIREMENT"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0RETIREMENT<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Last week I wrote about Aunt Babe reading the obituaries. A long life focused on the past.<\/p>\n

My Dad had a different view of life.<\/p>\n

He went into the military at a young age to avoid going into CCC (depression government job program for youth\u2014Army paid more). Went overseas for WW2. Made the Europe invasion, The Battle of the Bulge. Then to Korea during the Korean War where he made The Inchon Landing and the drive to the Yalu. Where he along with most of the other troops were almost cutoff by the Chinese. He had numerous other overseas assignments. Some we, his family could go with him. Others we could not. The army moved us almost every year. I never went to the same school two years in a row until I got to the 8th grade.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Also, we usually lived in housing provided by the Army.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I mention all of that to possibly explain his focus on retirement.
\nIt seemed that he was always talking about when he would retire. That was an ongoing focus. It usually focused on the area in Southwest Louisiana where family lived. I suppose this represented stability.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWhen I retire\u201d was an ongoing part of our lives in spite of living in some exotic places such as Paupa New Guinea, Guam and Washington DC. We also visited Japan and the Philippines. \u201cWhen I retire\u201d overshadowed all of that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When asked what he was going to do in retirement it was often, \u201cgoing fishing\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After 20 plus years in the Army, He retired in his late 30s to that part of Louisiana he had always focused on. At the time he was stationed at Fort Polk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What did he do? He went fishing! Got to know me better. Got our house and yard the way he wanted it and then HE GOT A JOB. Yep, went right back to work. He had to get a GED. Although he was an officer in the Army he never got a High School diploma. First, he worked at the plant. Then the prison. Finally at the post office. He was on sick leave from there when he died at 57.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The point. He was living in an imagined future of retirement. When he got there it was not that different from the life he was already living.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Live with a present focus. Not looking at the past as Aunt Babe did or at the future as Dad did. But live in the day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that was an integral part of Jesus’ teaching.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

—<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

C. J.<\/strong><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0RETIREMENT Last week I wrote about Aunt Babe reading the obituaries. A long life focused on the past. My Dad had a different view of life. He went into the military at a young age to avoid going into CCC (depression government job program for youth\u2014Army paid more). Went overseas for WW2. Made the Europe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-different-drummer","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":644,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions\/644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}