A free calendar can be a lonely one
“Finding the balance between the two impulses (self indulgence vs. generosity/community/interdependence) is a continual struggle.”
Life at the time
- Used classes and exercise to bring structure to open time.
- Found work contacts fading while friends remained occupied with jobs and children.
How it felt
- Could find the absence of structure disorienting. “the lack of structure that FI facilitates can be disorienting”
- Was still balancing autonomy, activity and the wish for company. “Finding the balance between the two impulses”
Notes
Publication date at available precision. Retirement milestones follow the author’s own count; a missing milestone is not inferred.
Isolation, old colleagues and self-imposed structure.
Editorial summaries with short, attributed quotations. The original contains the full story.