“Really, I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I retire. Wash dishes?” Loretta Lynn
When your work is your life and your life is reflected in your work, can you stop doing one without giving up the other?
If you are a teacher to the deepest core of your being, does educating and inspiring end on the first day of summer vacation or the last time you pack up your classroom? Or does it shift form and evolve into new methods of instruction and showing others the wonder around us?
Pablo Picasso was creating right up until the end of his life. “Retiring” never entered his mind because he could not imagine disconnecting himself from his art: life and art were one and the same.
A writer, be it of poetry or song, cannot merely put down their pen because of hitting a certain number of revolutions around the sun or because of selling x number of their creations. Dr. Seuss was almost 86 years old when “Oh The Places You’ll Go” was published and hit #1.
When your passion and profession become the same, you can continue to play and improve and produce until your last days. Sure beats doing dishes.