Coda

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But I don’t want any of that.
I’d rather… I’d rather just sing.
^{Monty Python and the Holy Grail (swamp-castle scene)}

At a recent dinner with friends a topic of discussion came up: “What do you do for fun?” (Thanks, Nancy.) A simple enough question but one that ended up inspiring some deeper, perhaps existential, thought.

Michelle and I appreciate that we lead a very privileged life and we try to volunteer, help others and give back to community when we can. Retirement prompted a realignment of our personal identities away from our jobs/professions and toward our beliefs/activities, two paradigms that elicit completely different answers to the question “What do you do?”

A jazz-musician friend once excitedly proclaimed “Ah, the coda, that’s where the fun begins!” (Thanks, Paul, and apologies for the paraphrasing.) A coda occurs at the end of a piece and, in jazz, is a place where artists can extemporize on the melodic and harmonic themes introduced through the preceding work. Typically there are no rules and the creative freedom is always exciting for both performer and listener.

Retirement, to me, is like a coda. There are still rules, of course, and the creative freedom may be limited by the smaller pool of available creativity. But if we are lucky, each of us can discover our own life-coda, one which aligns with not only our beliefs/activities but also our need for FUN. A return to my musical roots has done this for me and I have found that my CODA includes singing.

Based on my research and experience, I highly recommend including choirs and community in your quest.