Calendar

It’s time to buy a new calendar and I’m suddenly faced with another of retirement’s changes. I no longer need one.

That is, I no longer need a weekly one where I log my hours and list deadlines. I’ve had one since I was a college freshman. For years they where desk sized with pictures for every week. Then, when I went to work and had to carry it with me, they became pocket sized with no ornamentation.

Now a monthly one will do to remind me of my few appointments, mostly medical in nature. Indeed, since I no longer need to pull it out every day, a monthly one will be better at reminding me that something in the future is lurking somewhere on the page.

I wouldn’t even have to spend money if card shops still had those free ones they used to. But that would rob me of the pleasures of calendar hunting, one of those rituals of the new year. I’ve found some pocket sized ones with pictures, not as wonderful as the desk sized weeklies, but something still more aesthetic than utilitarian.

This could be a new market for those selling to the coming retirement class - only most of those, at least those who use calendars, probably carry their’s on their telephone, and won’t exchange that continuity with the wired world for mere paper. After all, aging shouldn’t be a time of regressing.