Two more work days! Or, make that two more shifts in what I call my ‘paycheck job.’ I’ve been working in a grocery store for the past six years, after spending over three decades in the corporate world. Partly that was because we moved from New York City to rural New Jersey, and partly because I was tired of living for the weekend, as most people did before the pandemic. And now, as I anticipate receiving my Medicare card in October, I am leaving the deli counter to be a full-time writer, publisher, podcaster, AI-enthusiast, and what I call an imaginative. My version of a creative. It works for me because everything we want to do begins by imagining ourselves doing it!

Let’s check in with my staff of androids and see what they have to say.

Here are some of the best things about retiring …

Retiring is an exciting milestone in life that can open up new opportunities and allow people to explore the world or simply relax. For many, retirement means leaving behind the stresses of work and embracing a less rigid lifestyle.

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Click for the audio version. Narration provided by WondervoxAI.

With all the efforts being made in states across the country to force LGBTQ people into silence, out of public view, re-marginalized as outlaws whose very lives are once again being made criminal, it was beyond refreshing to walk in the Lambertville (NJ) and New Hope (PA) Pride parade. It rained all day long, which didn’t dampen our spirits. It was a big, wet, glorious day.

Some thoughts on Pride

Pride for LGBTQ people is not the opposite of humility. It does not come before a fall, but after rising from the weight of discrimination and hatred. Pride is not arrogant or self-serving.

Pride, for us, is:

Learning to love ourselves and each other despite the lies we’re told about ourselves.

Learning to care for ourselves and each other, despite having been abandoned by families and institutions.

Learning to be free, and to celebrate the freedom of others, whether they are like us or not.

Learning to hear the inner voices of kindness, encouragement, and daring, until they drown out the voices of condemnation, contempt, and mockery.

Pride does not mean we’re ‘proud’ to be something we naturally are. It means we reject the rejection, the bigotry, the scorn, the ridicule, the hatred of others, the self-hatred we’re taught from pulpits and state houses and governors’ mansions and laws meant to defeat us. Pride is the conviction that we won’t be defeated, and that we have nothing to hide.