Retirement

By Stephen House. Adelaide, South Australia

When a friend spoke to me about her retirement, a shadow of reality slid over me without any consideration for my years; an older woman falling over near me last week, who I stayed with until an ambulance arrived, and a recent funeral of someone I knew and liked compounding the associated thought of, I am now well into what is regarded as retirement age, with it all messily complicated by a hereditary heart issue that has recently burst scarily into my realm.

This evening walking on a beach I talked to him — who is more special to me than words can match — about maybe my last show that opened in my hometown and I toured to a satisfying and appreciated reaction, being the conclusion to a career I have loved, that has also been my life and passion; that it is now time for the new car and tent I’ve thought about for a few years, and living in it and traveling around ongoing, adding bits about how quickly time escapes and to be nomads however we choose is what we have always planned.

I’d never imagined retirement would sit by me because of my creative working life. It would not be a consideration, as my vocation would never end, but the complexities of age and health are not just about continuing work because one can, I’ve thought lately. There is only an allotted amount of time and seeing some I know of the same vintage drop off quickly or be taken slowly by nasty illnesses that arrive unannounced hits home.

And while I have always wandered off alone for months worldwide and been who I will be without asking permission, there is a marked difference between saying no to self about more work and taking all kinds of jobs and pitching often to continue doing what I have always done. This is now the time to put freedom and adventure first — and not second or on hold — until after the next gig, realizing that if I don’t live it fully now time and life will disappear.

So I said to him and few close others that I would plan that life now and only do a show offer if it was too special not to, as some can be, or a writing commission or idea that fully grabs me; and that it would mostly be us if he was still keen on joining me, wandering this incredible country and more, and I’d work on poetry and stories as I’ve always done, and take some photos along with travel, for that seems to fit with my kind of ‘retirement’ of still creating work but not locked into working; and I’d spend more time visiting and enjoying time with my wonderful son who lives in another state on a part of the coast I adore. 

And then out of the blue, walking on the beach, my partner said he was retiring too, saying goodbye to his long successful career. The adventures we had dreamed about would come true as we had said they would, for if anything at all is related to what we have documented in our sharing of conversation, laughs, thoughts, nature, wanderings and holidays over the years, it is our love and joy of being together and living this amazing life fully.

Stephen House is an Australian playwright, poet, and actor. He’s had twenty plays produced, many commissioned, and many published by Australian Plays Transform. He has won two Awgie Awards from The Australian Writer’s Guild, an Adelaide Fringe Award, The Rhonda Jancovich Poetry Award for Social Justice, The Goolwa Poetry Cup, Feast Short Story Prize, and more. He’s been shortlisted for Lane Cove Literary Award, Overland’s Fair Australia Fiction Prize, The Robyn Mathison Poetry Prize, The Tom Collins Poetry Prize, The Patrick White Playwright and Queensland Premier Drama Awards, Greenroom Best Actor Award, and more. He’s received Australia Council literature residencies to Ireland and Canada, and an India Asialink. He has worked with many theatre companies. His chapbooks “real and unreal” poetry and “The Ajoona Guest House” monologue are published by ICOE Press Australia. He has performed his acclaimed monologues widely. His poems are published often. He also had a play run in Spain for four years.