Day Three—After Class

Lionel Basney's final paragraph in Note 5 resonates with me:

...And what will I do when these brief, regular performances (in class) are no longer requested? No one has told me this, but I suspect that the most frightening aspect about retirement may be the sudden stillness of one's own voice. A few of us, very few, will be invited to schools and conferences to go on talking and put off the day of silence. Most of us will just have to go home and be silent. How will we get along with ourselves?

I went to my primary care physician after class for a deferred annual physical examination. Dr. Do (pronounced dough) asked me if I had retired yet. He was a student at Amarillo College back in the 1980s. I gathered from his remarks that he had steered clear of me. The pre-med tactic of protecting the GPA: You must be tough, that's what all of the students said. I replied—indignantly—that I was nothing of the sort. Rather, I am a sweetheart among the fiends that inhabit the College's classrooms. Dr. Do dropped the subject. However, it seems that I am asked at least one a day: Are you retired yet? No, I am just tired. Lionel Basney calls retirement enforced silence. How will I get along with myself? Stay tuned.