Retire

Although the man who used to have a moustache is about to retire (I hesitated for a moment while writing this sentence, considering whether I should actually use the passive voice), he is not going to disappear from our field.

Alas, he just moves to a prestigious private hospital and continued with his clinical and, more importantly, administrative work.

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During the dinner, we met a few other senior consultants who retired in the recent one or two years. And, as you expect, they do not disappear from the stage either - most of them are still doing part time job in their original hospital, usually helping out in the out-patient clinic once or twice each week.

One of them was YC, a hemotologist who retired not too long ago. (Her husband is a senior nephrologist. That's why she's with us.) Throughout the evening, she asked my mentor more than once, "Why on earth do you work so hard after retirement?"

I could imagine the conversation could go like this:

"Isn't it better to be leisured and enjoy your life?"

"I enjoy the work."

"Yes, wouldn't it be narrow minded to focus on those, when you look at it from a distance, minutiae?"

It becomes a philosophical question.