In Cynthia Dill’s Nov. 5 commentary, she writes: “Retirement is surrender – an early retreat to an artificial life when many still have creative energy and accumulated wisdom to solve problems.”

She clearly does not understand that that – giving back – is precisely what we are doing. We have not “surrendered”: We have chosen to move past over 50 years of full-time “employment” to full-time re-employment, doing many of the same things we did before, sometimes working harder, to make a difference, to use our creative energy and talents and wisdom to solve problems!

Of the many women and men I have talked with and interviewed about their “retirement” years, I have been exhilarated, often awed, at what they – we – are doing now, in this, our last trimester.

I invite her to sit with us, a group of women and men, in what some call their “re-finement” years, to really learn about what we are doing, to understand how we are making an important difference in a world that is in a tail-spin.

Many of us adhere to Hunter S. Thompson’s idea that we are going to go out “thoroughly used up” and “totally worn out.” I hope that Cynthia Dill understands that this is, in no way, surrender! Quite the opposite, actually.

Luisa Deprez

Portland