Retirement: whats in a word?

I recently retired from clinical practice. That, by itself, isn’t unusual. Readily available data indicate that some 11 000 Americans and 1600 UK workers retire every day.1–3 But as I contemplated my own retirement, I wondered what separation from a job I had for more than two thirds of my life would really mean for me and my family, and what retirement meant in terms of a life changing event for me and my fellow retirees. Do our work-lives really define us as people and how we see ourselves fitting into the fabric of society? Or are our jobs just long-lasting (life-long?) displacement activities, with freedom and the actual ‘pursuit of happiness’ always waiting in the wings.

Some of my generation-mates will retire from factories or from office desks or from their own businesses. In my case, my trendy standing ‘office’ desk was an operating table,…

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