Never Retire: I Don't Want To Take My Umbrella To The Grocery Store Because I Don't Speak Spanish
Plus, the cost of a morning of grocery and marketing shopping in Spain versus Los Angeles
That’s what I said to my wife the other morning as I set out solo for the ATM, then the grocery store on a rainy morning in Valencia, Spain.
I don’t want to take my umbrella to the grocery store because I don’t speak Spanish.
I should give myself a little credit on the second part of that sentence. Because I do speak Spanish. It just isn’t very good. It’s not close enough to conversational.
Even though I competently shot someone down the other day using Spanish. For the first time ever!
Anyhow—
As for the first part, either I’m a special kind of weirdo or those of you who have lived in a place where you’re only learning the language have said or, at least, felt something similar. This idea that you really need to limit your moving parts to give yourself a fighting chance to effectively navigate your surroundings.
Before I—
Expand on that thought.
Tell you what we spent on a Monday morning supermarket/Russafa Market haul.
And provide visual proof that we’re almost settled into day-to-day life in Spain.
—the thought I am about to expand on expands on the point I made in Sunday’s newsletter about the Never Retire focus of this newsletter:
Never Retire evolved into an umbrella concept that means more than simply Never Retiring from work. It’s about not letting yourself slide into stagnation at any point in life, but particularly the second act of life when we’re prone to resisting challenges and change that can help keep our bodies and minds vibrant in favor of the comfort level we achieved in life and or worse the bitterness we have allowed to accumulate.
My experience—my reality that I relay—is simply my way of dealing with all of the above and more. Of getting ahead of it so it doesn’t become a thing.
So expect Never Retire to maintain a dual theme going forward:
How things, such as what we’ll discuss today, represent the type of challenge you can use to keep your body and mind working as you get older.
The original core theme that retirement is a dead and dumb concept and you can create a Never Retire iteration of your own as an alternative.
As for why I didn’t want to bring the umbrella. It’s difficult to explain.