in 2017 I operated this blog to attract readers, now I write because I'm 74 years old

Then in 2017 I had 100,000 visits to my site every month.

It's a different philosophy now. It's that I'm 74 and want my brain to keep working and thinking. I've been retired now because of my health since 1998 at age 50. 24 years of retirement is sort of like imagine 24 years of continuous summer and Christmas and Easter vacations when you were school age in a never ending succession of vacations.

It's good in that you have the freedom to do whatever you want to and it's bad in that if you are not self directed enough and self disciplined enough you just won't survive it at all.

So, retirement isn't for everyone. My father for example was a workaholic and needed work to stay alive and died about 5 years after he retired. However, he was a real man's man and very intelligent and Old School in this sense too and was born in 1916.

I find the biggest obstacle to living to 100 or more actually is your mind and what you do with it 24 hours a day.

The capacity to just BE is important too in this configuration and also you have to have enough money to be retired as well and know how to keep your health both mental and physical in balance. Also, it helps to have friends nearby even if this friend is your spouse or significant other. Just being alone for most people just isn't enough reason to stay alive.

I decided not to die at 50 because I had a 2 1/2 year old daughter who is now grown up, a 10 year old daughter and a 20 something son then in 1998 and. new wife I married in 1995. Everyone has reasons that they stay alive. It isn't something ambiguous usually.

My father told me a true story of a Road Runner desert bird who had babies in his garage at his home in the desert. At the time I didn't think too much about it but he said after the babies of the road runner all left the road runner cried and commiserated with my Dad. I think now my Dad was saying he was having trouble staying alive with me living 600 miles away with my then wife and our children. He retired in 1980 but was gone by 1985. However, my mother is by nature more like me and she made it to 90 years old whereas my father passed away in 1985 when he was only 69 years old and she in 2008 at 90.

So, what I'm saying here is not everyone is suited to retire ever. Only some of us.

By God's Grace