Retirement Party 

Driving into Boston the other day it dawned on me, I’m turning into a crotchety old man. Not quite at the level of my Cape in-laws, who treat going over the Sagamore bridge like planning the lunar landing, but more likely to complain about traffic than when I worked on-site. And not just grumpy, dumbfounded. “How can so many people live here?” I find myself grumbling under my breath.  

I’ll have to add this to the list of all my recent perceptual changes. If you ask me how long ago something was, I still need to do math and add up to two years to what it “seems” like. If there is more than one person in my immediate proximity, and it is not my wife who also works from home, it’s a crowd. And now, apparently, if I can’t go 70 miles an hour down the highway, I’m in a traffic jam. Chalk it up to the pandemic.  

In truth, our perception has always been a lot more malleable than we want to admit. Whether that is a consequence of familiarity or an elaborate defense mechanism to mediate a conflicting world, we all know the experience of something seeming different than it did before. We get used to certain things, we expect to see certain things, and the arc of our perception bends towards that until proven otherwise. A readjustment that can be disillusioning or delightful. 

All this to say that it was a fantastic treat to get together with my work team as the (not really) arduous trip to Boston allowed me to see many of them in person for the first time in a long time. A much deserved and long overdue retirement party for Sandie Kimball was a wonderful way to break out of the confines of the home office. Happy retirement, Sandie! We all had a great time and I left with some new experiences to color my outlook and recharge the batteries. 

I’m hoping to find more time to get together with friends and colleagues soon. It’s hard to believe there are only a couple more weeks of summer left. It always goes so fast.