Words of Wisdom from the Publix’s Check Out Line
I found myself recently in Charleston on a business/mini retreat. As has been my morning routine for far too many years, I got up early, started the coffee maker and then went in search of the daily news paper. Yes, in this age of getting news on small handheld devices, I actually prefer the old- fashioned printed newspaper. Just down the street from where I was staying was a Publix grocery store, and by the looks of the inside at 7am I might have been the first customer. I grabbed my two papers and went to pay for them. The cashier was a man in his late sixties or early seventies who took my papers, scanned them, and then said “staying in touch with the world I see” in a loud, energetic voice. My non-caffeinated response was something like “yeah, old habit.” To which he said, “yeah I remember before I retired, I was the same way.” I thought “retired”? Here was a man working at Publix at 7am in the morning, who sure didn’t look retired to me. So I asked, “retired?”. “Oh yeah, you probably can’t tell but I retired 5 years ago and moved to Charleston.” I asked how’s it going? He said “it was great the first two years but then I got bored, and started working at Publix.” I asked how it was working at Publix. He said “it’s great, I love the people and customers. Most of the folks are here on vacation so they all seem happy.” On the way back I thought about his comment about being bored. Many people claim that retirement is like a permanent vacation but there is quite a difference between a one or two week vacation, when it’s easy to be happy, and a retirement that could last for decades. Retirement is about a lot of things but I hope that boredom not is one of those things. We work, save, and plan for it, and retirement should be a time of enjoyment and fulfillment.