A Year in the Country

The country is not paradise, and can show the vices that grieve a good man everywhere. But there is room in it, and leisure. ~ E.M. Forster

Drum roll. Clash of cymbals. Trumpet fanfare. I have been retired and living in north Georgia for one year.

Both retirement and the rural life have proven to be as good as I could have hoped for. Phrasing it that way may not sound excessively effusive and celebratory, but I don’t want to overstate my case. I’d be lying if I said that retirement and living in the country were the best things to ever happen to me. That would mean they ranked above such things as being born, getting married, having two great kids and discovering sex.

That being said, one thing is for certain: I do not miss the stressful work of being a trial lawyer. I used to joke that being  a trial lawyer is like getting up every day and putting your head into a microwave oven. It was no joke. There are few occupations more competitive than that of a trial lawyer. There is always an attorney on the other side of every case trying to defeat you. A trial attorney makes his living engaging in contests. It’s the intellectual equivalent of warfare but with multiple skirmishes and battles every day.

I don’t care who you are, that takes a toll on you. I discovered that my ability to absorb stress, like the cartilage in my knees, started to wear out over time. The obvious benefits of being retired are that I don’t have to work long hours, drive long distances, ruin weekends preparing for trial and deal with opposing counsel who are jerk-offs and judges who have forgotten what it is like on the other side of the bench. But for me, the greatest thing about being retired is not having to deal with the daily stress and pressure.

It’s so great waking up and having to face a list of things that you want to do as opposed to a list of things you have to do. Even if your day consists of a bunch of chores, its great knowing that once they are done, you’ll have time to do the things that interest you.

The bottom line is that I don’t miss work one bit. I don’t think I could gear it up, strap on the pads and go back to work even if I had to. That great driving flywheel of momentum that sustained me in the latter years of my career has slowed to a halt. I think Newton said it best: An object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest. I’m certainly at rest.

As for the decision to leave urban Florida for rural Georgia, I have no regrets at all. The last year has been an adventure—meeting new people, learning new ways, and figuring out how I can fit into the fabric of my new society. It has been rewarding to realize that I have some skills, aside from being a trial lawyer, that local people and organizations value. I’m doing publicity for a charitable group and writing press releases that get published in the local papers. I’m editing a book for the history society on the history of schools in Fannin County. I’ve become a Georgia Master Gardener, and I’m creating a website for my Master Gardener Chapter (now all I have to do is figure out how you create a website). I’m about to start a publicity campaign to bring awareness to the problem of homelessness in Fannin County.

Life in a rural area is slower paced and more relaxed. There’s less traffic, less congestion, and less stoplights. When you arrive at where you’re going after a ride down a country lane, you’re not pissed off at the world.

I can’t state this as a universal fact, but my guess is that people in rural areas are generally nicer than people in crowded urban areas. I think scientists may have demonstrated that by crowding rats in a cage. I can certainly say that the people around here nicer than the ones in Pinellas County. That may have to do with the fact that if you are rude to a stranger in populous Pinellas County the chances are that you will never see him or her again, whereas in Fannin County there’s a good chance you’re going to run into the person again.

I like living in a small town. I may not have access to the opera and the symphony, Bern’s Steakhouse, and art exhibitions, but I’ve got small town Fourth of July Parades and Labor Day weekend barbeques in the park involving the whole town. I have a genuine sense of community here. I can’t say the same for Clearwater or Pinellas County.

So, the bottom line after one year is so far, so good. I’m glad I retired and happy that I moved to north Georgia. To those of you who read this blog, thanks for coming along. Now let’s see what next year brings.