What Time Is It?

The other night I was on a weekly Zoom call with a group of close friends from my college days.  We customarily get into all kinds of topics:  how and what our families are doing, travel plans and vacation experiences, preparations for our annual get together. . .and, inevitably as it seems, our latest health challenges, doctors’ visits, medical tests, and so forth. 

All of us are now septuagenarians, so we are attentive to the challenges of aging and the passage of time. Given that we are all fellow travelers, we are enjoying the journey together and committed to getting as much enjoyment and fulfillment from life as we can.  

As our conversation continued the other night, our friend Tim, who, by the way, is still working as a healthcare consultant, said he was reminded by one of his clients recently of an interesting way of looking at the passage of time. The client said, “I know it’s the 4th quarter; I just don’t know how much time is left on the clock.”  I loved it!  

For guys like Andy Gogates and me, who are becoming increasingly tuned in to how to “make retirement…work”, this is a valuable addition to our lexicon, a metaphor with meaning.  While on the one hand, it could be interpreted as slightly foreboding, on the other, it affirms for us and our clients (you) that there still IS “time on the clock!”  It spurs us on to make the most of the gift of time with our families, our friends, the causes we believe in, and the activities we enjoy. 

 Rick Hearin