Burdened

Many men of my age struggle with the feeling that they have no purpose. Even many those who were not senior decision makers during their working lives will have operated in an environment with some goals and objectives, some plans and processes, some targets and deadlines, some sense of success or progress. Critically, these criteria are often defined by someone else; over a 40-year span, they lose the knack of self-validation: defining their own priorities and gaining satisfaction from trying to meet them

I hesitate to paint this as a gendered issue, but it does seem to me to be a predominantly male problem. Something about the skewed expectations of our society, and the way these impact the male and female psyche, seems to result in women being much better equipped than men for post-retirement life, even if they have chosen a similar employment pathway. Society has changed a lot since I started work, of course, though I'm not sure those changes have done a lot for mental health. How an aging population will even be able to pay for the idea of retirement at all is a serious concern, with no clear answer. It's the sort of thing you would expect a mature political culture to be discussing during the run up to national elections. We'll see

I act as the buyer for our beekeeping group, so that we can make bulk purchases of consumables that most of us need. This month it is frames and wax foundation (thin sheets of wax - like oblong wax pancakes - on which the bees can build new comb). There has been a mix up, in which some people have picked up the wrong items from the collection point. Not my fault, but I'm in a position to help out with swapping things around. For fun, I thought I would combine it with a spin out on the newly-serviced bike tomorrow. I hope I don't also need the (bright!) new tyre levers - bought to replace the less robust ones that I wrecked fixing last week's punctures. The mechanic told me bike shops see tyre levers as a consumable item - they expect a pair to last a month. That made me feel better. 

Anyway, tomorrow I have a purpose