The Art of Retirement

      Ok the big day has come and gone. It seems that the last few months became unbearable. Once you give yourself permission to stop being in the work world you are not. Several years before deciding to retire my wife, Kathy, set up this blog for me for when I retire. She has always supported my writing mindset. My editor, confidant, critic, and fan Kathy has always encouraged my writing. I would not have a book on Amazon nor would I be writing under the name of Write My Fire. I am fortunate to have gotten the girl!
     The question now about retirement is where do you go from here. Is writing just for pleasure? Should I try to make money or publish a product? The need being is to supplement my income so that we can travel to do the things that we enjoy and also gather the experiences to draw future writing from. The natural thing for me is to do what I know. I have been told before to write about what you know. However I have never wanted to write a Plumbing and Heating blog nor have I ever wanted to write about pipes. The answer to the question may be to reinvent yourself. Is this what Grandma Moses did? Don't know what she did before picking up a paintbrush!
     What it really appears to be to me is an opportunity. There are many things in my life that I have left unfinished. Writing projects started but no completed. If you were to go back and look at all of my blogs from the beginning you would see that there are stories and thoughts that were begun but not pursued. A Historical novel that I have an outline, first chapter and notes for as well as a first act of a screen play. I even enrolled in a screenwriting workshop in Aspen when I was living there. Then there is a novel about writers estranged wishing to write with one another that is almost complete. It lacks a better beginning and a couple middle chapters in order to be complete. I wrote the book by writing separate short stories with the same characters designed to be linked together into a novel. Completion is not that far away.
     The answer is in the list. Like writing an outline, a list of half started works and ideas could be fleshed out and completed and turned into finished works. Not to mention many ideas and short stories that have been begun like blogs started and sitting in my blog sphere with the big red label of Draft on them. Yes there is also all of my poetry that was not included in Of Mountains and Men. Finish what you start!

The Razor's Thin Edge

There is a razor’s thin edge of existence in life. I have seen it in the mountains. A place where you know if you jump into a couloir to ski it your first few turns are the most critical. If you miss any of them and lose your balance you will most definitely fall to your death. It seems that the younger you are in life, the farther beyond that edge you step.  There is nothing like the exhilaration, the adrenalin rush, the sheer thrill of pushing the envelope just beyond that edge.

When I was twenty five and skiing at Arapahoe Basin in Colorado the edge blurred into reality for me. Arapahoe Basin was then the highest lift serviced mountain in America at 12,500 feet in elevation. The main lift brought you to the top of the mountain, and you could traverse into Lenawee Mountain and climb higher to get great powder shots. You could also drop over the backside into Montezuma Bowl and ski incredible vertical terrain and deep out of bounds powder, but you would have to hike out. Looking across Route 6 at the awesome Professor with its seven cornices would orient you toward the Pallavicini, on your left and the infamous Wall, the Wall was at the same elevation as the summit except that  there was an incredible vertical drop down from the summit with a steep incline back up to the cornice. The prevailing winds would race across the giant top of the wall and create a massive wind blown hanging cornice. It was always unstable and could fracture and avalanche at any time. Often it grew to enormous proportions and would be a twenty to thirty foot drop to the steep vertical slope below. On cold winter days it was always more stable and provided and excellent platform for launching into thin air before landing on the steep lower terrain. The lower terrain vertical was such that if you were not acutely aware of bringing your arms forward and keeping your elbows tucked in you might drag your arms on the slope behind you throwing off your balance.

One particular winter day I took the leap of faith and hit the deep powder successfully. I was just starting my second critical turn when another skier, who had not seen me jump from the cornice traversed across in front of me. I narrowly missed a collision but the tips of my skis caught the tails of his. My skis stopped abruptly. I was launched into a tip roll, a somersault on skis. Skiing with my bindings cranked down tight did nothing for easy release. The motto of the day was “Deliver us from premature release.” Every time I came back up on my skis I would again roll over and bury my head and neck in the snow. I was sure that this time my neck would break and I would die, or worse be paralyzed for life. This went on for what I thought was an eternity. It was then that my right shoulder caught a boulder. My shoulder dislocated and my ligaments and tendons were torn. It however had arrested my forward tumbling. I was unable to move my neck and it took months for both my shoulder and neck to heal. I said in the brashness of my youth, someday I will get a plastic socket. Through the pain in my later years, the prospect of a major operation does not intrigue me.

It brings me back to the fine line of existence in life and the mountains. I had realized my mortality. I was no longer an immortal God as I had thought in my youth. I had experienced near death. I never again skied with such reckless abandon. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I pushed the limit, even in my later years. I however possessed fear, a good healthy dose of it. It is detrimental when you love and play in the mountains to be afraid. Fear is healthy but you lose some of your edge. If you hesitate before turning on a steep slope or performing a feat while climbing or mountaineering it can be disastrous. I lost some of the thrill, to some degree, I had been conquered by nature instead of conquering it. I am saddened today by it, but it is as the world is.

I feel today like I am again standing on that wind blown cornice. I am more than twice that age now. The sky is azure blue, the wind gently rushes through my thinning hair, the snow is deep and the sun is shinning brightly. It is up to me to take the leap. What in the world am I talking about?

I have always wanted to pursue my writing career, but I always chose the safer accepted route of a business career in the private sector. The thought of contacting agents and editors and publishers has come and gone often. I even tried self publishing with out any great success. Always like a giant Goliath, the fear was in front of me, taunting me, calling out my name. It is time to slay the giant.

Today, I welcome you to Sun Moon Books. Look us up at www.sunmoonbooks.com. Our new blog. We will soon be publishing ebooks. My collection of ski short stories “White Dreams” will be available in mid to late February. I have another collection of horse short stories and two novels in the works for the next several years. Standing here on the cornice wondering if I should jump into that couloir full of snow snakes and conquer nature or be conquered by it, I am reminded of a quote that is attributed to the ages but no one sage in particular. “Leap and the net will appear.”