Is there a difference between being retired and being dead?

Is there a difference between being employed and being dead?

It all depends, perhaps. Is your retirement deadly boring? Is your employment deadly meaningless? It all comes down to “calling” – the sense that one is called to something.

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessey

Social philosopher Eugen Rosenstock-Huessey noted how curious is was that in their leisure time professors read books and jack-hammer operators rode motorcycles. If it really was leisure, he said, the professors who worked with ideas would be riding motorcycles; the jackhammer operators whose ears were filled with noise all week would be reading philosophy, history or novels.

I think  need a motorcycle!

P.S. My audiologist said I have the ears of a 45 year old jack-hammer operator.

• Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, Oct. 1, 2015