* If God exists or doesn't exist, what difference does it make to your life, right now?

* I was asked this question in 1970, while applying for conscientious objector status with the local draft board, in reference to my willingness to engage in violence: What would you do if you saw someone raping your mother? I told them I wouldn't recommend anyone pushing my conviction quite that far.

* What would you do if you were told that you were terminally ill and had only 2 weeks to live?

* This Christmas, let's suppose your 8 year old child or grandchild asks you if Santa is real? Does he really come down the chimney? Lie or not lie?

* How do you remain patriotic and loyal to a government that you no longer believe in?

* Is it possible for you to simplify your life?

* Would you give a dollar to a beggar?

* Do you look up and say hello to everyone you walk by on the street?

* What is keeping you from finding your bliss?

* If you had a billion dollars, what would you do with it?

* Where is the place that you feel your best, your most powerful?

* Who would miss you the most if you were suddenly gone?

Hard questions. If they're never asked, you will never think about them. It sometimes does you good to think about the unthinkable. The unfathomable. The mystery. What are some other questions you can think of? Go ahead, ask them.

The Baby Boomers have started retiring. In fact, the very first baby boomer, born one minute after midnight, January 1, 1946, recently applied for social security benefits. An estimated 10,000 people a day will become eligible for social security payments over the next two decades. And retirement at age 62 will be the clear favorite.

The average age for retirement has already dropped to 57. Some have saved enough money; others had retirement thrust upon them by being fired, or their jobs moving to Mexico or China. Still others retire for health reasons. I retired due to health reasons and disgust for where the field and agency I worked for were headed.

So by age 62, I'll be in line to start my social security benefits. Otherwise, I would have to wait until age 65 and 9 months. So do the math. It would be stupid for me to wait. I've talked to a lot of Boomers who will be doing the exact same thing. One drawback is having health insurance between age 62 and the start of Medicare, at age 65. That leaves approximately 3 years of no coverage, unless your spouse works and can get family coverage, or you are covered by your retirement, which is an idea that is almost extinct. But guess what? We Boomers are in control. Hello universal health-care. You can bet the winner of the 2008 election will have articulated a workable plan. We'll demand it.

Unlike previous generations, retirement is not about quitting anything other than the job(s) you might have done for the last 25-30 years. Many of these jobs have disappeared anyway. In my particular case, it had changed so much I barely recognized it. So its out with the old, and in with the new. A liberation. A personal revolution of sorts.

The question becomes: Now what? You might have one day, one year, ten years, 20 or more years, to plan for. It can almost be like another lifetime. A post-official job period. It occurs to me that the one thing you don't want to do is what you did. So why not try something new, something you have always wanted to do but never had the time for. You're rid of the inept managers, the time clocks, the alarm clocks, the deadline pressures. You're ready to kick some butt, the major difference being now its on your own time and your own terms.

I've been retired for a year now. I still don't have it quite figured out. I spend more time writing, which I enjoy, I started this blog site, which has been fun. I spend more time managing our investments, which has been productive. We bought a retirement home, where I spend some time, mainly pulling weeds, cleaning the gutters, and playing golf. I do continue to feel the obligation to give help to others less fortunate than we have been, although my career involved attempting to do some of that. I have been giving some thought to starting a restaurant, bakery, soup kitchen, living quarters to train the jobless and house the homeless while learning a marketable skill.

So I'm foundering a bit. Each day I feel I get a little closer to understanding it, it being retirement, and what to do with the rest of my life, however long or short that may be. I need whatever it is to be relevant, idealistic, and above all, contrary to conventional wisdom. That's the Boomer way. We are the dreamers. We stopped an unjust and worthless war. We put Blacks into places and jobs where they had never been. We removed two Presidents from office who were not representing our best interests. The day after the Kent State killings, a group of us took over the Presidents office at Southern Illinois University. While I was sitting at his desk, I had this overwhelming feeling that we had done something worthwhile. We showed the world that we were angry with how things were going, that we were not going to stand back and allow these kinds of things to happen. In retirement, I'm getting that same feeling again. Some call it ReFirement. That's maybe not a bad word for it.

President Bush worries about Cuba being a dictatorship, but gives whole-hearted support to Pakistan, also a dictatorship. And this isn't just verbal support. We have given the Pakistan government billions of dollars to help General Musharraf keep his hold on the country. In return, he give us nothing. They continue to be a safe haven for bin Laden and many of he Al Qaeda. One would have to wonder why he is so worried about a tiny island ninety miles off the coast of Florida? General Musharraf suspended the Pakistan constitution, shut down all the press, expelled all the journalists, and put most of the countries educated in jail. One has to believe that perhaps Bush idolizes General Musharraf for his excellent leadership skills.

Which candidate for the presidency in 2008 is talking about capital punishment? You hear hardly a word. One of the biggest cruelties to ever exist continues to flourish in the U.S. We are the only major power in the world that continues to use this barbaric, Dark Ages method of revenge and retribution. The U.S., China, and Saudi Arabia are all pro-capital punishment. There's some great company to be keeping. In fact, George W. Bush has presided over more executions than any person, ever, in American history. A country cannot join the European Union if they continue to advocate and use capital punishment as a deterrent to crime. This primitive mind-set remains one of our most evil tendencies. If it is cruelty that a civilization is measured by, we in the U.S. stand at the bottom. One only needs to look at those executed over the years to realize there are no millionaires amongst them. And I doubt millionaires do not commit capital crimes. It is the poor and minorities who are executed. We like to think of ourselves as leaders of the civilized world, when in fact we maintain a practice that is immoral, irrelevant, uncivilized, and racist.

The nice vote goes to Huckabee.
No other is as nice as he.
He leads a decent sort of life.
He's married to his only wife.
His kids, I bet, will speak to him.
He's courteous, but isn't prim.
A cheerful fat man, he got lean.
He's not vindictive, rude, or mean.
Of course, he thinks our way's been lost:
Abortion is a "holocaust."
And evolution's just a myth
(The apes are not his kin or kith).
And what the Bible says is true.
The Earth's not old. It's rather new--
Six thousand year, from Eve to present.
He's wacko, sure, but he's sure pleasant.
Calvin Trillin
Deadline Poet
(This message is approved by The Peever)