Richard Gagnon asks me…
Back when Robert Redford announced he was retiring, I wondered why he did that. Most workers retire from an employment status. Entertainers and freelancers don't have a normal work relationship. They're constantly going from job to job where they're lining up future jobs while being temporarily employed. When they decide to retire, they simply stop seeking new work. Why do some make the effort to say they're retired? I've met retired coworkers that regretted retiring because they didn't know what to do with all their free time.
I can understand why you're not seeking retirement. You like to write. You get to set your own hours. You don't have to be someplace five days a week at set times. You've chosen a career as a writer which you would do even if you weren't being paid. Very few people have a job they enjoy enough that they'd do it without pay. Having spent most of your COVID time working at home, would you ever take a writing job in the future that required you doing it in an office setting away from home?
Would Jack Kirby ever have retired for anything other than health?
Taking the last question first: No, I don't think so. But if he'd had the kind of financial cushion he deserved, he might have worked fewer hours and indulged some longings to travel or experiment with other kinds of art or writing. Maybe.
I can only guess about Mr. Redford's motives for announcing his retirement. My guess would be that he wanted to stop making movies but didn't want people saying, "Looks like Redford's career has tanked. Nobody's hiring him anymore." In other words, he wanted everyone to know his exit from the screen was his choice and was not dictated by a lack of demand for his services.
And then, if and when he does decide to make some movie at some point in the future, people will say, "Robert Redford came out of retirement to do this picture" and not, "Hey, look! Someone finally decided to hire Robert Redford!"
As for me, I dunno. I'm very comfortable working at home but there are some things you don't want to say "never" about. I can't say that if the right offer for the right project came in, I wouldn't grab it even if it meant going into an office every day. I guess it's in that category of "I'll decide if and when it becomes a real option." I've wasted a lot of time in my life thinking about what I'd do in given situations that never happened…or where the circumstances were way different than I would have expected.
