In a recent phone visit with Neil Hiltunen he mentioned the theme of "Happiness In Retirement" for a future communication from ARD. I found that interesting and a topic I am very happy to write about!

While thinking about the huge subject of human happiness it occurred to me that  a way to start might might be to give some thought to one of the opposites of happiness – I suppose that would be unhappiness. But what is that?  Let me give you one word of what unhappiness is then I’ll spend the rest of the essay explaining how it might make sense. The one word is fear.

In my last essay for ARD I used the phrase “hanging it up.”  Neil Hiltunen questioned the use of the phrase – let me clarify.  I am a trout fisherman, have been for more than 70 years.  I was eight when I caught my first one, a small brook trout.  Prudence and painful experience tells me that it is time to stop wearing chest high waders and fishing in fast moving streams and rivers with unstable footing!  I’m hanging it up on river wade fishing.

Episode Theory
“The ending of every episode in life signifies the beginning of a new one.”
Yes, of course, the “biggie” is birth and death of the body.  Within the span of that episode every one of us has had hundreds of shorter episodes -- each with its beginning and end.  If you went into great detail identifying and recording these episodes it would be creating your auto-biography -- not a bad thing to do.