We can take the Bible’s course instead.

For the curious, an immensely updated and re-worked version of this is available here.

Men like Ben Shapiro occasionally come out with genius statements about the evils of retirement. What everybody hears (and what some are saying) is: ‘Work until you drop.’ As a whole, the country recoils, and then the ‘conservative’ continues on, righteous in his commitment to Diligence and Max Weber’s Protestant Work Ethic, in perhaps more or less words. He considers himself a representative of the old tradition of hard work which made America great. He’s also operating off of bad history. See, history (and Scripture) gives us a model for how to deal with old age. It’s not retirement as we have it now, a simple drop into indolence that deprives men (and women) of their drive for life, of work’s dignity and purpose, but it’s far from the work-till-you-break people offer as retirement’s alternative. We can have diligence into old age without sticking grandpa in the sweat shop, with dignity and with allowance for the physical frailty which all experience eventually.

Men have always gotten older over time. Old age has always brought a diminishment of physical capacity (we can set mental afflictions aside for now- they constitute a type of damage which can actually require more complete retirement or more unconventional handling by the elder’s parents). Beowulf tells us of King Hrothgar, “He was a peerless king, until old age sapped his strength and did him mortal harm, as it has done so many” (Seamus Heaney’s translation, c. ln 1900, paraphrased by my memory). As people grow older, they lose the capacity to exert themselves in the same way they did as children; even low-force dexterity often suffers in time. Particularly for manual laborers, such as farmers and many types of craftsmen, this physical frailty, even when retarded (by God’s grace) though good genes and healthy living, eventually puts an end to youth’s work habits.

This has been the reality for all of history, ever since Adam hit his 800s and got a bad knee. People have come up with a lot of answers, but the best is the one we see in our own history, heavily influenced by Scripture, with its respect for the wisdom of elders (Proverbs speaks much, and all across Scripture we find respect for those who speak wisely in the gate, judgment for the one who squanders his old age in foolishness).

Western history, to my knowledge, contains no instances of formal ‘retirement age.’ The question of whether it was time to consider a new course was left to circumstance and bodily integrity, not a tax bracket and a set of government regulations. This way makes more sense than the modern way, obviously: some people last longer than others, whether because of genetics, injury, personal habits, or just what they’re doing, even in the same job. All this said, eventually people do have to slow down; even a desk job may be interrupted as old age brings along a host of small symptoms- aches and pains, changing sleep needs, etc.

Our answer to this eventuality, in the old days, was to focus on the upside of old age, not just the downsides. Old age brings a physical slow-down, but in the process of getting to said old age, people gather much knowledge, skill, and wisdom. When they use their lives well at all (not a guarantee, but that’s a different problem), they arrive in old age with a deep well of experience to draw on- not just wisdom in general life but particular expertise in their long-time occupations.

The man who has worked for thirty or forty years on construction work, if he’s put some thought and care into his labor, has a type of knowledge which is not so much encyclopedic as intensely practical. He may or may not know all the technicalities of construction, depending on his experience, but he knows how the process plays out in practice. He knows where errors usually end up being made, whether or not he knows the math behind it (which he might), and he knows where regulations become counter-productive. He knows a hundred ways to do all the important tasks, and he even knows the three ways that work. Possibly more importantly, he knows the men he’s worked alongside- their culture, their vices, their virtues. He may or may not be a leader by temperament or skill, but he understands the men he works among, making him at least an invaluable advisor for somebody looking to get the best out of the workers. He also, hopefully, has a native sympathy with those he has been among for decades, setting him up as an advisor who cares for the men whose work he influences, the next generation.

Modern retirement sticks elders off in the corner. They can have hobbies, or they can return to the workforce on about the same terms any other person would have, to jobs their physical difficulties probably make harder and harder over the years. Neither option is good, and neither considers the value of the experience and wisdom the ‘retiree’ may possess. What’s the alternative?

We could go to the old model. Here the old man becomes a mentor, an advisor, a trainer. He provides the opportunity or the training for the next generation to build farther, teaching them wisdom and skill. In a generational economy, such as God advises, he also provides a base of capital (material) which the next generation can use to get on their feet and bear fruit. Old women do the same, albeit generally in a different context.

The doctor who grows old, under this model, doesn’t simply assemble enough money to enjoy life, sell off or hand over his practice (if he has one), and move on. No, he finds somebody, his son perhaps, who will take up the mantle. This younger man learns from the older man, absorbing his wisdom, but he also provides the physical capacity which the older man is slowly losing. In this way, both benefit and a legacy is created for the next generation.

In some cases, this mentorship is relatively formal, a man taking an apprentice under his wing to learn the craft. In some, it emerges as a result of generational inheritance. A farmer grows old, and his son, who has worked with him since youth, takes on more responsibilities. The father provides wisdom for the farming and for the rest of life; the son supports his father. The arrangement is one of mutual familial love (Rom. 13:10), and both grow blessed.

Other ways of tapping this great reserve of wisdom are possible. The ‘retirement’ in old age could be for some a retreat from active application of their expertise to a vocation of sharing that expertise, becoming advisors or consultants, even as a profession.

Women aren’t left out of this model, either. Women who engage in ‘labor,’ of course, have a similar course available to them as men. But home-keeping is as great a deed as any lawyer or bricklayer ever does, perhaps greater in the Lord’s eyes and in the right hands. A grandmother comes to her children, ideally, with a vast wealth of experience to guide them in being parents, a wealth transmissible also to her grandchildren and to others in the community. Don’t think that I’m limiting women here to merely the house, though; a farmer’s wife (historically) is a critical part of the farming, meaning she’ll have a whole wealth of wisdom there. Proverbs 31 speaks of a woman who engages in industry, just in a different route than her husband.

Old marriages, when they are good marriages, also present a wealth of opportunity for the young to learn, in a way much less painful than trial and error.

Titus 2:2-5 teaches essentially this model: “Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” Scripture tells older generations to pass down wisdom and younger generations to heed that wisdom, a two-way street. This model is simply an application of that injunction.

Old age in this model is not a time to disappear or to diminish or to grind down. Old age becomes an opportunity to develop gifts in a different direction; ‘retirement’ is replaced with a vocational shift which amounts to maturation, long labor blossoming into deep wisdom, growing fruit which blesses both the giver and the receiver. Old men and old women aren’t shuffled off to the side or pressed into pretending they are still young. Instead, they are encouraged and given the chance to share the wisdom given them by God, preparing their children and their proteges for His world (Ps. 127:5). They find a way to continue to bear better fruit despite the weight of approaching death (Rom. 6:23).

God bless.