WHEN the cigar chomping American comedian George Burns reached his 100th birthday earlier this year he came lout with the immortal line.
"It's nice to be here. At my age, it's nice to be anywhere."
His career lasted more than 90 years, spanning vaudeville, radio, films, television, nightclubs, best selling books, recordings and videos. Work was the secret of his success. He loved work. It kept him young and active. "Age to me means nothing", he once said. "I can't get old I'm working .... When I'm out in front of an audience, all that love and vitality sweeps over me and I forget my age."
The gutsy little George came into my mind recently when I looked around and saw all the reasonably young early 50s people who have taken early retirement. They have all apparently accepted offers they simply "couldn't refuse". They have taken the money and run.
Some left with talk about setting up "consultancy work", which never materialised, or the enterprise went bust after a few months. Others left because they felt modern youngsters were too smart and were after their jobs, hungry for promotion. The pressure was too great.
Negative Thinking
Many left because modern society is pushing people into thinking they are old at SO. Sadly, people in this age group then begin to believe this and start thinking they are in fact old. What an insidious, dangerous form of brain washing. You are only as old as you feel.
Recently, I was speaking to a friend who is 58, who retired a year ago. I got a shock. He was talking like an old man and had developed an old person's slow drawl (he used to have a brisk, matter of fact way of expressing himself).
His whole preoccupation seemed to he the weather. OK, he had a few interests and he wasn't completely brain dead, but the spark had gone out of him. He had convinced himself that he was old and now has all the mannerisms of an old man. No credit to me, but I ran away from his company in sheer fright. It was depressing.
George Burns would have wept. No, he just wouldn't have understood such a mentality. "When he won an Oscar in the 1970s, he said "It proves one thing if you stay in the business long enough, and if you get to be old enough, you get to be new again."
Mind Over Matter
A few years ago, I was travelling home on the DART when I bumped into a former colleague who was almost 70. He was still full of life and mischief. I asked him where he was going and he told me he was on his way to interview a person in Dalkey for a book he was researching.
I was impressed and said it was great to see he was still writing. His reply startled me. "Oh, that is just one of three books I'm writing at the moment." The man didn't know the meaning of the word retirement. His mind was lively, his curiosity knew no bounds and he just had to be involved in the world around him.
Now, I don't want to be too dogmatic about this business of retirement. Don't get me wrong. I know many people are in jobs they detest, or perhaps are under extreme pressure, or their health may not be good their nerves may even be shattered. Sure, take early retirement. But I'm talking about highly active, healthy, extremely talented people who are conned or cajoled into accepting that offer they cannot refuse and later bitterly regret their decision.
To retire in your early 50s, when medical science is now bringing people into their 80s and upwards, is simply not a good career move. The earliest any healthy person should retire at is 60. It's no wonder that retired folk are fighting back.
They now feel under threat land are setting up Active Retirement Groups. They are fighting to show that they still have a part to play in society. They don't want to be locked away and it's truly pathetic that things should have come to such a stage.
Still Going Strong
Frank Sinatra has retired a few times. On each occasion he realised he had made a mistake, so he kept coming back. He came back so often that Lazarus was rumoured to be embarrassed. It wasn't for the money. No, he just liked to sing and be involved with life. He's 80 now and still going strong.
I have a very good friend in his 80s who is still playing tennis every day and coaches women players. I asked him what his secret was. He replied. "Keep moving, Frankie. Sit down and you are dead. If you even start to think you are old, then you are halfway to being old."
I was talking to a wise old man the other day who had this to say. "Young people think they know everything, old people know they don't. Old people are still learning. That is the big difference."
The person I really admire is the one who wins the Lotto and says it won't change a thing and means it. Such a person knows the value of work to the psyche. One needs the discipline and the satisfaction of doing an efficient day's work. If there are no targets, you lose interest. Ask any unemployed person what they think of people taking early retirement. The answer puts everything into perspective.