Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez was at a crossroads. Should he retire, after nearly 50 years as a journalist, or keep at it? To find the answer and help others struggling with a similar question, Lopez turned it into a reporting exercise.
A few years ago, when he was just past 65, Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez was at a crossroads. Should he retire, after nearly 50 years as a journalist, or keep at it?
Suddenly, you’ve got a lot of extra time, and you have to anticipate that this may require some management of those things.There was another point behind her comment. I’ve been racing, racing, racing for 50 years, and one of the things I missed was developing a number of deep friendships. So, here I am approaching retirement. I’ve certainly got friends, but I don’t have deep friendships the way my wife does.
And I think she was very relieved when my decision was the hybrid plan, because you get to do something you love but have time to explore other things.What did your daughter Caroline think about the idea of you possibly retiring full-time and being at home with Alison?How do you think the pandemic has played into people choosing when, how or whether to retire?
At one point during the year, you could have taken a buyout like your editor did, but you didn’t. What made you decide not to?I think maybe partly what held me back was a combination of: I still like what I get to do and I’m not quite sure that financially I’m ready to retire. That’s a good point. There’s maybe time to find something I love just as much. Maybe I’d find mentoring young journalists just as fulfilling. And maybe a great way to end my career would be by helping to launch the careers of others to take the baton.Why did the L.A. Times allow you to switch to your new hybrid schedule, essentially transitioning to unretirement?
I’m in good shape this year because my year starts in July, and I’ve only had one week off. I’ve got 11 weeks off between now and next July.In the last couple months, we’ve had a big [mayoral] election coming in L.A. that’s been keeping us busy. On top of that, we now have a city hall scandal. And I said: “All of my peers are having that conversation, especially given that in my industry there are these annual buyout offers.” And if you’ve been around a while, the terms of the buyouts were pretty attractive.And I said: “Because I love what I do, and given the decline of the news industry, I feel all the more privileged, and lucky to still be able to do it.”
But I don’t want to be one of those people who never gets to that list of things you’ve always wanted to do because health gets in the way, whether it’s physical health or cognitive loss. And that’s kind of what Nancy’s continuer notion is about. She said that I might write freelance stories occasionally. I might write books. I might become a mentor. I might visit and speak to writing classes. And that may be me in Chapter 2 of my life.I would say that’s probably a pretty good observation. I wonder if I might like to go at least a while — a month, six months, a year — with a vow to not write anything or think about any stories just to see how that feels.
My son, who’s a librarian, was once asking me about the next book I would be working on. I said, “I don’t know if I’m going to write any more books.” And he said, “Why not?” And I said: “We have a limited amount of time on this Earth, and I’m not so sure that I’d rather write mediocre books than read and reread great books.
I would like the idea of building up a foundation of knowledge and kind of chronicling my own advance into my 70s and beyond.
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