CARDER OF “RETIRING.”

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 257, 11 October 1928, Page 2

CARDER OF “RETIRING.”

(By a Medical Specialist.) The danger that may attend too early or too sudden retirement from the occupation of a busy professional or commercial career, and which have been in one way exemplified in the tlragic death of Sir James Charles the famous Cunard commander, are fully recognised by experienced medical men (states a writer in the Daily News). Many a man who has spent! the greater part of tia life in a strenuous and successful m-eer naturally looks forward to peaceful closing years that can be occupied with what are commonly regarded as the pursuits of his well earned leisure. He reflects too lit'tle, perhaps, upon I the fact that his physical and mental system constitute a delicately - balanced machine, all the more complex since ife parts have been “run in” by so many years of toilsome us,e that it is extremely difficult for it to make new adjustments, adopt new ways of working or moving, or new methods of seeking the satisfaction it needs. The common experience of a medical man is to find that when his patient suddenly starts to use a different part of the machine from that which he has been accustomed to use for the greater part of his life, it is inevitably to the detriment of the older used parts, and accompanied by the over-strain of those newly used. When a man retires and says to I-imself, “Now I will devote myself to golf,” after having been comparatively inactive hitherto, he is making two vital changes in his way of living. He is stopping the parts of his engine that have been working hard for a great many years, and he is atltempt- . ing to energise and over-work parts that are rusty or inefficient. Once the wheels are stopped from responding to t'heir ordinary stimulus, the cogs are apt to become clogged, material collects at the joints and in- : terferes with the working of the ma- ' chine.

The sensible course for every man approaching the so-called retiring age is to ease off gently, to grow old efficiently as well as gracefully, and to stop looking at life as being divided into hard-and-fast periods. Let him gradually reduce his working day and his responsibilities as he feels the pressure of growing years, but always look upon himself as the same human in it throughout life, and take care tto maintain those mental and physical interests which have proved suitable to his development and his temperament. He will thus escape the dangers of too sudden retirement and go on growing to the end.