Angles

This blog is written by Lee Gale Gruen to help retirees, those soon to retire, baby boomers, and seniors reinvent themselves in this new stage of their lives called retirement. Her blog, public lecture, and new self-help book on senior reinvention are titled: Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years: Find Joy Excitement, and Purpose After You Retire. Her memoir is: Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter’s Journey Through a Senior Acting Class. Books descriptions follow her blog below. Both books are available at Amazon.com by clicking here and here. Her website is: LeeGaleGruen.com

Now, on to my blog:

Everyone has an angle. No, I’m not talking about the 90 degree type or its gradients. I mean an angle in the sense of one’s agenda. It is a selfish manipulation of a situation in order to maximize it for one’s own benefit. That is not a good thing or a bad thing. It is simply human nature–or actually animal nature. We must behave that way in order to insure our own survival.

However, some people carry it to an extreme. They go far beyond mere survival. Their “angle” is to drive as much of the communal resources toward themselves as they can, often to the detriment of the other members. That’s when an angle begins swinging from neutral toward the far end of the pendulum’s arc.

We see that a lot these days. For example, there is way too much wealth concentrated in the hands of way too few. That leaves way too many without the ability to satisfy even their basic needs.

Some will say that those unfortunate folks were simply not smart enough, not sharp enough, not swift enough, not lucky enough, not resourceful enough, not…not…not. That may be so, but are those reasons to justify why smarties, sharpies, swifties, et al should have far more than they will ever be able to use in their lifetime or their children’s lifetimes or their grandchildren’s lifetimes or…or…or? Even with spending it as fast as they can on lavish goods and projects such as vanity rocket ships, they still can’t seem to get rid of their money. The structure of their businesses and investments along with the laws and politics that accompany them add more wealth to fill any gap in their financial portfolios that their expenditures create.

These are questions that our society has grappled with historically and is currently grappling with. How long do we let this situation continue? Is it until we are not only witnessing homeless encampments on the side of our local roads, but when we are actually stepping around the impoverished as we walk down the sidewalks that abut those roads or honk impatiently at them as we are trying to pull our cars out of the driveway. How long do we wait?

Of course, our ever-ready police departments will clear away such intruders into our manicured neighborhoods. That works fine when there are one or two or ten. But, what about when there are several dozen, several hundred, several…? How long do we wait?

Yes, I know–in order to incentivize a person to be creative and innovative, some type of reward is usually required, and that reward is most often monetary along with its resultant Three-Ps: power, privilege, and prestige. Still…

Photo credit: 35mmMan on Visualhunt

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BOOKS BY: LEE GALE GRUEN

Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years: Find Joy, Excitement, and Purpose After You Retire (self-help): Not a one-size-fits-all approach, this self-help book for retirees, those soon to retire, baby boomers, and seniors offers an individualized, detailed guide to assist readers in discovering activities and pursuits in this new stage of their lives called retirement, based on their own likes and comfort level. I learned the secret the hard way transitioning from retired probation officer to actress, author, public speaker, and blogger. Audience members at my lectures on senior reinvention requested a book on the subject. This is the result, and it contains the content of those talks and six years of posts from this blog. CLICK here TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON.COM.

Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter’s Journey Through a Senior Acting Class (memoir): After retiring at age 60 from my 37-year career as a probation officer, I mistakenly enrolled in an acting class for seniors.  A few weeks later, my mother died, and I invited my grieving, 85-year-old father to come to class with me.  This is the true story of our magical journey attending that class together for three years, bonding more than ever.  I wrote the comedy scenes we performed onstage twice a year in the acting class showcases, and all six scenes are included in the book.  I eventually transitioned into the world of professional acting.  As my fledgling, second career started going uphill, my dad’s health started going downhill.  I would recount to him each of my new experiences while I sat beside his bed at the nursing home where he resided in his final years. CLICK here TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON.COM.

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