Risky Abundance
So there are
always obstacles and people afraid to take risks. That’s
why you end up with remakes of old television shows
as movies. But playing it safe is what’s risky,
because nothing new comes out of it.
Clint Eastwood
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What if the typical image of abundance
is a false image? We’ve all heard and seen the promises.
Make a lot of money and you too can sit on a tropical beach,
drinking cold beer or sipping margaritas and watch the sunset.
The assumption behind such promises is that an abundant life
is an easy life, with plenty of time to play and relax, without
much hard work and little risk.
What if the real purpose of wealth is
to make it possible for you to take on bigger challenges,
to face greater risks? When you have enough money to take
care of your basic needs, wealth allows you to engage more
fully in life.
This week, I read an article in the Sunday
Parade Magazine by Clint Eastwood. I also went for a walk
with a friend. What they each have in common is that both
are in their mid-seventies and both seek out challenges rather
than the easy way.
Life is a
constant class, and once you think you know it all,
you’re due to decay. You’re due to slide.
I have to keep challenging myself and try something
I haven’t done before.
Clint Eastwood.
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The Parade article was about the two
films Clint Eastwood made about the battle of Iwo Jima in
1945. There are really two stories going on the article. The
first is concerns the two movies—one is from an American
perspective and the second from a Japanese perspective—about
one of the most horrific battles of World War II.
The second story is about Clint Eastwood
himself, who at the age of 76, is still fully engaged in his
life. At an age when Eastwood could be taking the easy way
out, he makes compelling, risky, difficult movies.
My friend is neither famous nor rich,
but she is also fully engaged in her life. She had just returned
from a trip to Croatia. She has no interest in going on luxurious
cruises. Instead, she goes on hiking trips with Elder Hostel,
and always goes on the most difficult hike. In the last few
years she has been to various places, such as China, Australia,
South America, and the English Midlands. She also volunteers
once a week at the Oakland Zoo, taking care of warthogs and
meerkats, among other creatures.
Incidentally, I also see a doctor who
has been practicing medicine for fifty years. Now in his late
seventies, he is fully involved in his life. He still teaches
medical residents and still has a full practice.
So here is my question for you. What
is your vision of how you will spend your older years? What
will you do when you are seventy or eighty or ninety? Is your
goal to amass enough money so that you can retire early? And
then what will you do with your life?
The idea of retirement itself is a treacherous
one. The root meaning of the word, “retirement”
is to “draw back.” The first definition in the
MerriamWebster dictionary is: “to withdraw from action
or danger.”
Every movie
I make teaches me something, and that’s why I
keep making them. I’m at that stage of life when
I could probably stop and just hit golf balls. But in
filming these two movies about Iwo Jima, I learned about
war and about character. I also learned a lot about
myself.
Clint Eastwood
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It’s one thing to retire from a
deadening job that does not nurture your soul or energize
your mind and body. It is another thing to retire from the
risks and dangers of being alive. This is what is so compelling
about Clint Eastwood’s comments. At the age of 76, Clint
Eastwood has not retired. Clint Eastwood will never retire.
Surely, Clint Eastwood has enough money to retire, to relax,
to enjoy himself. But he is still in the game. And each film
he makes is harder and riskier than the ones he made before.
The popular image of retirement is the
opposite. “It’s time to take it easy. I’ve
worked hard and now it’s time to play.” In the
city where I live, there is a large, affluent retirement community.
Over the years, I have met a large number of people who live
there. They have amazing stories of what they did in their
younger years. Many will say that they have never been so
busy, but when you ask what they are doing, you will find
that being busy means that they are caught up in an endless
round of hobbies, golf, and trips to Reno.
I knew a woman who lived there who was
one of the most energetic and dynamic people I have ever met.
Once, she showed me some gifts she had made for Christmas:
little kitchen plaques made with different shapes and colors
of macaroni.
I looked at those plaques and thought,
“What a waste.” This woman had visited art museums
around the world. It would be one thing if she was doing something
that was authentic art, coming from her own artistic vision.
But somehow, making little name plaques out of macaroni seemed
like such a waste of her energy and accumulated wisdom. The
project was not worthy of her.
There is something profoundly wasteful
about reaching the age of retirement with the idea that it
is now time to play. Do not misunderstand. Playing is good.
Adventures are good. Hobbies are good. What isn't good is
the idea that people can reach a certain age and stop working,
stop growing, stop learning, and simply enjoy the good life.
As people age, they have the wisdom of
years behind them. They have amassed a lifetime of experiences.
This is not the time to turn life into a long recess.
For much of human history, elders were
revered as a source of wisdom and experience. They were consulted
for their knowledge and their ability to take the long view.
In our era, many people with enough money tend to retire to
warm places, where they can play golf and tennis, travel,
and enjoy themselves, convinced that they have worked hard
and now deserve to enjoy their golden years.
Meanwhile, their children and grandchildren
are left behind, struggling with the stresses and strains
of life. Imagine what difference it would make if elders remained
fully engaged in the lives of their families and their communities,
rather than going off to play in retirement communities.
The fallacy of much thinking about abundance
is that more money makes life easier. What if abundance allows
you to do more difficult things? Harder things, more challenging
things? Abundance lets you grow beyond what is safe and familiar,
to be able to take the risks that make your life worth living.
If all you have is enough money to keep
you in your rut, going to work, doing the same old stuff again
and again, what more money does is allow you to be more fully
engaged in life.
I like doing
things where I can stretch and go in different directions.
I’m not looking to take it easy. Like the marines
on Iwo Jima, I understand that if you really want something,
you have to be ready to fight.
Clint Eastwood
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It comes down to a choice. You keep learning,
growing, and risking, or you are on a fast track to dying.
Abundance allows you to have more experiences, to learn more,
and to risk more. Abundance allows you to be fully alive,
whatever your age.
For Your Abundant Success,
Kalinda Rose Stevenson
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