Why is Time Weird Now?

Hello friends, and welcome to Notes from the Road! Glad you're along for the ride. Each week, you'll get news, advice, tools, and inspiration to design your “years beyond careers,” whether you're traveling around the world or blazing a trail in your own backyard. In this issue:

• Why is time so weird now?

• Americans are unretiring, for surprising reasons.

• The weekly roundup: worth watching, reading, and listening.

• A driving tour on the Isle of Skye.

• Some wisdom from Eleanor Roosevelt.

Let’s get started!

There are lots of very good theories that try to explain why time seems to speed up as we get older. I don’t know which is the right one, but I do know that we need a good theory, because every time I turn around, a month or a year has gone by.

This once again occurred to me at the end of this summer, when the Labor Day weekend, and the closing of the pool, landed upon me like a ton of bricks.

I should have seen this coming when I first became aware of my time-based fashion blindness. I can easily identify the look of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and…then….just a void. When someone says “those jeans are classic 2008” I’m completely baffled. For me, 1990 telescoped right into 2023.

More profoundly, I turned 55 this year, and in reflecting on that blessed milestone I felt as if I had teleported through a wormhole from 2000 to today. I turned around on this birthday to realize that I’ve had a long and happy marriage, raised a child who is now a young adult, mourned the loss of both my parents, pursued educational and career achievements, endured some health scares, and bought a few modest automobiles and homes along the way.

When did this happen? Where did this time go? Was I busy doing something else? And how much is left?

All of this to say that I’ve become a bit obsessed with time. Now, I hoard it. I dole it out in tiny increments when it’s unreasonably demanded of me. I’m furious when others waste it. Mostly now, I savor it. Always happy to pack every single possible thing into every day when I was younger, I now embrace the wisdom of my friend’s mother, liberally using her catchall phrase: “Oh, that’s too much trouble.”

I remember when I was a young mother, a bit frazzled and tired at the playground, an older woman said to me kindly, “the days are long, but the years are short.” A lot of wisdom, generously packed into one tiny sentence. It’s good to remember, even now.

Hope you’re able to make every minute count this week. See you next time.

Americans are considering “unretiring,” for surprising reasons.

F&G Insurance’s Retirement Reconsidered survey found that 50% of pre-retirees and retirees are considering either delaying or coming out of retirement.

Why? Well, it depends.

Pre-retirees are most focused on having enough money and protecting it from inflation.

Retirees, though, are more focused on intellectual challenge and want to avoid having a lack of purpose.

Another take on this? Retirees—who presumably have some experience with being retired—might successfuly adapt to the financial realities of retirement more quickly than anticipated. Once that’s out of the way, what’s left is the real work of retirement: carving out a new sense of purpose.

What will your purpose be once your nest egg is ready to hatch?

Explore a new sense of purpose with us.

The Weekly Roundup

Worth your time to watch, read, and listen.

🎞️ Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones (Netflix) - Travel to Japan, Italy, Greece, Costa Rica, and the United States and see where people have the highest life expectancy. Yes, diet, exercise, and relationships all make a difference, but in very interesting and achievable ways. (Four episodes averaging ~40 mins).

🍲 Sardinia Minestrone Soup Recipe - A staple of Sardinian Blue Zone residents. And this play-by-play and review of the making of the soup.

📰 Not Quietly Quitting But Quietly Returning, Older Workers Are Changing Work And Retirement - An Editor’s Pick filled with good data and some reasons why it’s happening. A full 60% of people returning to work are “just looking for something to do.” (10 minute read)

🎞️ Bonus just for fun: The Best Of Norway's Railway Cab Views - Meet RailCowGirl, a female train driver/engineer who records her everyday views from Norwegian train lines. If you’re a train buff, it gets reeaaaaalll detailed in the Notes. (Hours and hours long).

🌟💡🌟Anything that you’d like us to share in the Weekly Roundup? Any burning topics you’d like us to write about? Let us know.

Just imagine how much fun it would be to read this every 1-2 weeks!