Roger Ebert on Studs Turkel: “The lesson Studs has taught me is that your life is over when you stop living it. If you can truly ‘retire,’ you had a job, but not an occupation. Observing people like Studs and the author Paul Theroux, and the great sports writer William Nack, and directors like Robert Altman and Sidney Lumet, I have seen those whose lifelong occupations absorb them, and who are not merely maintaining, but growing. How astonishing it was to learn that Altman made great films after having a heart transplant!”
I don’t know if that applies to everyone. Easy for these guys to say, they kind of have cushy jobs and they’re rich! My mom loved her job, but now that she’s retired she enjoys doing all the stuff she didn’t have time to do before. Sometimes we have a lot of passions in life and one occupation just won’t encompass them all.