The Artist on the Side of the Road

Untouchable artists, tossed aside.

That silver taxi won't take us for a ride. 

But we do art just to survive. 

You can throw that out, too, when we die. 

Puny Statues

 The gods are glaring at me. 
They boast, "Ha! Look at us:
Frozen in space and  carved so fine. 
You are clumsy, wet, impermanent!
You wish, wash, slush around. 
We know and are on solid ground."

I take the puny statues
Crush them with my hammer. 
"Ha," I say, 
"Seems you've forgotten 
who's constructed of clay." 

You Have Nothing to Lose but Your 401K

 

A coworker of mine is turning sixty-five and is going to retire right away. She and her husband have worked all their lives and are ready to enjoy some free time.

“I’d like to travel,” she says. I nod my head supportively until she tosses in a grim caveat. “But we have to do it soon.” She sweeps her hand across her obese body, as if submitting it into evidence, “We don’t have much time left.”

I utter some encouraging phrases before heading to my own health wrecking office considering the pervasiveness of this story. It could be dubbed “the retirement fallacy”: buying into the notion that a life spent working in exchange for a few blissful decades at the end is a good bet. Not so, if one arrives at retirement age sick and broken, the money saved for that trip around the world vanishing into medical bills.

Of course, there is a “choice” component to a healthy lifestyle, but working full time clearly discourages it. First, deliberate exercise and healthful meal preparation require time. Once all the average working person’s hours are truly accounted for, there is very little of that left. Meanwhile, the chronic stress associated with the often-grueling activities of working-class jobs leaves a person exhausted at the end of the day. The activities often used for recovery, like smoking, drinking, or watching television, further erode the working persons’ health. Many a treadmill bought and abandoned in the living room, sufficing as an expensive coat rack.

My more conspiratorial self is tempted to call the retirement fallacy a deliberate arrangement: a scheme that has been inflicted on the working class since its advent. The concept of retirement is dangled like a swinging chocolate carrot, enticing the worker to sacrifice her peak years making other people rich, spoil her health in the process, only to get shipped off to the packer when she is no longer useful: an entire class of Orwellian Boxers.

It is for this reason that I am not waiting for some enlightened rich person to normalize the twenty-hour work week; as of several months ago, I adopted it anyway.  I’ll put it into words the investor class can understand: I am choosing to spread my retirement out over the remainder of my life instead of taking it as one lump sum.

The benefits of working part time have been well documented. It is not just for physical health; it improves mental health, lowers stress, and increases happiness.  I’ve noticed that there is more time for self-improvement: more time for creative endeavors and DIY projects. There is less of an impact on the environment. I am driving less, consuming less, and attempting to raise some of my own food. I am still “working”, but I can see the direct results.    

I realize that most people are not able to do this.  A combination of luck, choice, preferences, and privileges make this plan viable for me. For example, if my mind remains sharp, I have the type of job I can do well into my old age.  I earn enough of an hourly wage so I can still afford the basics while working fewer hours. The most glaring advantage of all? I have no kids. Because of these factors and more, I have the option to be poor.

Naturally, there are risks. The most striking is ageism: just because I’m able to work doesn’t mean the job market will have me.  Also, an unfortunate life event, like a chronic illness, would indeed spoil my plans. However, even if I unleashed my full-time earning potential now, a catastrophe would exhaust my meager savings very quickly. Besides, by investing in my health, I am mitigating much of that risk.

I’ll admit that for some, mostly the wealthy, the retirement life-structure works beautifully. For others, retirement may not be the anticipated reward, but simply icing on the cake.  Because of a full-time commitment, a working person can reap all the benefits of modern society and live comfortably. That may be enough for some people, but I’m sure there are many who feel shafted, as I do.   

Thwarting my indoctrination is not easy, and I worry about the barriers that a society hellbent on destroying me will accomplish just that. However, I refuse to continuously subsidize the rich with my time and labor at the expense of my health and happiness. I am choosing time over money. I’m investing in my health instead of my 401K.