‘Retirement’ is interesting. It’s 4 ½ year in and sometimes I still deal with some of the same issues I have written about before. HOWEVER, here I want to write about another interesting phenomenon I’m sure other retirees also experience. It has to do with memory, rhythms, our biological clock and feelings. At least, those are the categories I put this in.
Since I don’t go to work Monday to Friday anymore, I have nothing with which to connect those days. As my wife reminds me, “Every day is Saturday for you.” Not sure why she doesn’t say Sunday. Maybe because, for us, Sunday was the one day that still had a marker – attending ‘church.’ Of course, for the last 3 ½ months, during this Covid-19 restrictive period, even that has somewhat gone by the wayside. Our congregation does prepare something for Sundays, but as with much on-line, one can watch/listen to it anytime. And no one will know whether you ‘attended’ Sunday or some other day.
There are two regular items that do mark weekdays. One can make a trip to the mailbox to check for mail on those days. Thursday, the free local paper should arrive at the front door. Last week there was a publishing issue and we did not even get that. As with many papers, it’s running into difficulty and I would not be surprised if one of these days the print edition disappeared. Just 15 year ago, we used to get two free papers twice a week in this community! One could also now add a third, Wednesdays, as our congregation has an on-line prayer meeting in the evening – if you choose to ‘attend.’ But that is also decreasing, now that ‘summer holidays’ have come. Even that term seems somewhat anachronistic this year. It would apply to school pupils and teacher somewhat but not as much to everyone else.
So, I never feel like it’s a weekday. I have to remember or be reminded that on weekdays I can contact businesses and get the mail. However, I often feel that it is Saturday or Sunday. Not so much for reasons already mentioned that have to do with Sunday. It has more to do with the emotional colour that one attached to certain things that took place on those days.
For example, yesterday. Tuesday evening, felt like Saturday evening. Why? Our daughter was completing an overnight visit – actually two nights, as this was the first time she did this since Covid-19 set in. Then we took a nice drive to take her home and deliver her with all the goodies with which she usually leaves us. Like most, we don’t get out much, so taking a drive is a bit of an outing treat. Remember Sunday drives? If you are old enough. It was even better earlier when the gas was cheaper and one did not think quite so much about the necessity or not of driving and burning fossil fuels. But why was that a ‘Saturday’ event? Because our daughter used to come regularly on Fridays, earlier on after tutoring locally. She would stay overnight and Saturday evening she would go home to prepare to attend her church Sunday. See the connection.
The other occurrence, which has not been as frequent lately, again due to ‘the virus’, has to do with Sunday. We often had friends for lunch on Sunday, or went for a picnic lunch with them. Now, with the freedom of retirement, mind you, within the restrictions of Covid-19 lately, we sometimes have those lunches and picnics on weekdays. It depends on the weather. So, prior to or after one of those events, it feels like Sunday.
The tricks emotion and memory can play on our sense of time! If there was one thing I learned early in my psychiatric studies, it was that memories are not what we think they are. They are not just or even verifiable facts. They are often creations of what happened plus the emotions around them, the sense of time related to them, and so forth. Furthermore, memories can change over time as we remember under different circumstances and add a new layer to the original experience.
Enjoy your created memories! Don’t worry about the dates or the facts!
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