With My Boots On

Latest reports are that Medicare has only eight more years. To be honest, I don't expect to be able to use any Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security.

For one thing, I can't imagine not working. Yes, I'm getting older, and a few times, my mind has wandered over the path of thought the word "retirement" leads it. Thoughts like how many more years? How will we be able to live? But I'm pretty sure that even once I retire, I'm not going to stop working. How boring would that be? How useless I would feel.

My dad worked up until he died. I guess you'd say he died with his boots on.

In the movie Secondhand Lions, Hub, one of Walter's great-uncles, is fighting the idea of growing old. He's used to a life of war and battle, having fought in two world wars and numerous other smaller wars. Now Hub keeps doing crazy, dangerous stuff and Walter's afraid he's going to die. At one point, Hub and Garth, his brother, use their money to buy a lion so they can have a lion hunt. But the lion is an aging lioness that won't even run. Walter keeps her as a pet. Then when the boyfriend of Walter's mother is beating up the boy, the lion attacks the boyfriend and dies in the fight.

"She died with her boots on," the uncles told Walter, "protecting her cub."

Later, Walter convinces Hub that he needs both his great-uncles to take care of him. Hub promises to lay off the crazy behavior until Walter has graduated from college. The movie ends (and begins) with the uncles flying a homemade WWI bi-plane into a barn. The sheriff telling Walter says, "They died with their boots on."

That's what I want. Let me die with my boots on.