Living The Semi-Retired Life: I'm Not Too Proud Or Egomaniacal To Admit...

I’m encouraged by the recent engagement from this community we’re forming here.

While it’s unavoidable to use the word subscribers, I don’t like it much. Yes, I absolutely need subscribers to keep writing this newsletter till the day I die. But the thing is I get more out of the comments you make in response to something I write than what I wrote to begin with.

I love telling other people’s stories—or providing a forum for them to tell their stories themselves—because they often get at the issues we discuss from a perspective I simply don’t have. I’m not too proud—or egomaniacal—to admit that my top performing posts (and the ones I enjoy most) are the ones relaying other people’s experiences.

I’m almost 48 with an eye on how my semi-retired life will look 2, 3, 4, 5 years from now. And how it will look at 58, 68, 78, 88, 98 and all points between and beyond (!). So I can’t give you first-person perspective on relative old age. I can only relay how things look now and how I want them to look when I hit the second half of my life, which, gosh darn it, doesn’t officially commence until I turn 50!

Of course, I can detail the things my partner and I are doing to execute our plans. But, again, this comes from my perspective. I’d be a fool to think I can—or should try to—cover all the bases, from specific strategies to myriad contexts dictated by place and life stage, all by myself.

As is often the case, Bruce Springsteen said it best, when he inducted The E Street Band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

And one thing is for certain: As I said before in reference to Clarence Clemons — I told a story with the E Street Band that was, and is, bigger than I ever could have told on my own. And I believe that settles that question.

But that is the hallmark of a rock and roll band — the narrative you tell together is bigger than anyone could have told on your own. That’s the Rolling Stones; the Sex Pistols; that’s Bob Marley and the Wailers. That’s James Brown and His Famous Flames. That’s Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

The stories we’re telling together here in recent weeks have moved and inspired me.

In this spirit, today’s installment features some of the raw and real—moving and inspiring— comments I have received to recent posts with my commentary sprinkled between.