In many countries retirement age is 60 or thereabouts. Many people start
taking it easy, enjoy a pension benefit and above all enjoy free time, time
with their grandchildren, hang out with friends, and just cherish any hobbies
they may have. But when you browse through history books, you will find that
many successful people started a second life as they reached 60. Winston
Churchill became Prime Minster of England when he was 65, while Gold Meir became
Prime Minister of Israel at the age of 71. Francis Chichester sailed around the
world when he was 64. Claude Monet, the French artist kept painting when he was
86. Wolfgang Goethe finished his masterpiece Faust when he was 81, while
Voltaire kept writing his plays until he was 84years old, when he eventually
died. Giuseppe Verdi wrote Otello at the age of 74 and his last opera Falstaff
at 80. Pablo Picasso kept painting beyond his 90th birthday, and Michelangelo
was painting his frescoes in the Sistine chapel while in his 70s and 80s. And
as bishops should tender their resignation when they turn 75, Cardinal Angelo
Roncalli and Jorge Bergoglio became Popes when they were beyond 76, while
Joseph Ratzinger was 79 – they became respectively John XXIII, Francis and
Benedict XVI.
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