Yes, I know: we retire. And we retire from a working life, in some form or another. But surely we are still stewards of our lives and of experience and talent that we have cultivated through our “working” lives. And thus it would follow – would it not? – that we are still able and willing and wanting to do some kind of good work. And perhaps even that we would view it as a calling – a vocation in our elder years.
But there is a shift; there is a transition. And the question we then ask is: what is the vocation of this elder – very much this person, at this time and in this place. The work to which we are called will be very particular and specific and thus in a sense unique.
So, what is that good work? What might be the good work to which we are called? Here are some considerations – on the vocation of an elder.
First, again from Carolyn Heilbrun, who I mentioned in an earlier post. She suggests “that the task” or the work “must be in keeping with the tone and substance of one’s previous work . . . “. This makes sense. The work to which we are called as elders might well be something completely new. Perhaps. But typically, at least, there would be some continuity – some sense in which there are threads of our previous working life that find expression now, as elders. I am taken by that phrase from Heilbrun . . . “the tone and substance of . . . previous work.”
My mother chose to be a chaplain – volunteer – at the hospital. She was all in: in her late 60s she went for the training and got assigned to a floor and she had her routine and she followed it. And she found this to be a profoundly satisfying form of service. I did not see this coming; none of us did. But for her, it was not “out of the blue”; it was rather in continuity with a key thread of her work before she came to that senior phase or stage of life and work.
But still, more often than not the continuity will be more obvious: the tone and substance of our previous work.
Second, we learn to accept obscurity. There might be famous elders. Consider Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter building homes with Habitat for Humanity or off to countries where he was involved in monitoring for free and open elections. Nelson Mandela became president of the new South Africa at age 76, no less. And he was very much an elder to his country. But for most elders, the work to which they are called will be at the margins, with little acclaim or likely little by way of a tangible accomplishment. The work of an elder will be like tree planting: one small seedling at a time where the fruit of the labor will not be known or recognized until long after we are gone. It is quieter work often done in obscurity. And there is contentment in this: one sets aside the need to be a hero or revolutionary or to get any acclaim.
Third, we have nothing left to prove. We are beyond vindication; we are done with that. We accept that through our working lives there have been points of success – deeply satisfying for sure– and those points in our working lives that did not go so well. And all of that is now behind us.
As a university faculty member you never got promoted to full professor. As a bank staff person you never got to be the branch manager. As an artist, you never got the show at your preferred gallery. In business you never made the million. On a pastoral staff, you never got to be lead or senior pastor.
And now, it’s okay; your c.v. is no longer a point of reference or something you are using with the hope of getting a job or acclaim or vindication. You have nothing left to prove.
And finally, for sure: no frenetic busyness at this stage of life. Any work you do is at a leisured pace. We are past the need to multi-task or to feel significant because we are busy. And that we are doing all kinds of things hoping that there is some good work in the mix of activities that consume our day. But it is hit and miss. As such worship and contemplative prayer are the essential counterparts to work — whatever that work might be. This surely applies to us at every stage of life and work, of course. But now is the time to make this stick; now is the time to do good work, without busyness or frenetic activity. Because we come to work from a posture of prayer, contemplation and quiet.
And the result may be that in this season of life, we have the opportunity for some of the most satisfying work of our lives.
That is, it has a different nuance and character to it, but as elders we still do good work.