Relevance In Retirement

I knew that sooner or later I would need to address the regular questions I receive following my retirement from Humana Inc. in April 2024. Questions such as: How is your retirement going; what have you enjoyed most in retirement; what have you missed from your professional life; what advice you would give others contemplating retirement. These are all great questions which I will attempt to address in my retirement update. So here goes.

As I contemplated retirement, one thought persisted at the top of my mind. That thought was being relevant. I was confident that my work in providing legal work at Humana gave me tremendous professional satisfaction and a sense of purpose and professional relevancy. There is something important about being needed by others and being able to meaningfully assist others in their work even if it means regularly responding to nightly emails at 10:00 PM! It is hard to describe the incredible blessing this was for me. I know so many individuals who dislike their work and are literally counting the days until they can retire. This was surely not the case for me! I needed no one to tell me that there would be a significant professional void of some magnitude following retirement. While I was confident that I would be able to continue to provide pro bono legal work through a non-profit legal clinic and serve as a board member for a crisis pregnancy center, it became clear to me that I would need a major challenge as quickly as possible following my retirement. Failing to do so would surely result in feelings of a major loss.

To be sure, I considered myself incredibly blessed to have served 6 years in the Bell Telephone System as a real estate manager and 39 years for Humana Inc. as corporate attorney. But as much as I enjoyed work in Corporate America, I could not escape my feelings of concern for certain developments in Corporate America. Specifically, as an Evangelical Christian, I was troubled by many of the things I saw becoming the focus in Corporate America. Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) became the gospel preached and taught in Corporate America with Evangelical fervor. For me it seemed that DEI had essentially become an end and not just one of many items getting airtime in the corporate agenda. I found this development heartbreaking.     

Thankfully, as retirement neared, I already had an idea which I began to prayerfully consider in earnest. Why not write a book which focused on the issues I was concerned about as an Evangelical Christian working in Corporate America. It was my conviction that I was not the only Christian experiencing these concerns. I had never been an author of anything, but the idea of writing this kind of book was intriguing, and I had an incredible passion to pursue it. Writing the book was certainly a challenge, but overall, a very enjoyable experience. The book, Almost Finished, was published on Amazon in January 2025.

The book has given me the opportunity to share my faith in Jesus Christ and discuss many of the things I was concerned about in Corporate America from a Christian worldview perspective but not able to address during the time of my career. And more importantly, it gave me the opportunity to share mistakes that I made as a Believer with the hope of guiding other Believers to handle challenges in the corporate workplace much better than I did. I trust that in some way I succeeded in doing so.

Following the publication of my book, I was invited to discuss my book on The Commonwealth Matters U Tube Podcast. I also had the opportunity to discuss and share copies of my book with members of a young adult Sunday School class in my church and entertain their questions regarding my experience in the corporate workplace as a Christian. While I am concerned about the challenges they are facing, I am encouraged by their earnest and informed desire to live out their faith in the workplace.

Writing the book has also given me the motivation and a desire to continue to write and share my perspective on current events taking place in the world today in Corporate America and the political realm. I have been able to do that through a weekly blog, Just A Little More to Say. I found that there are many topics to discuss from a Biblical and Christian world view perspective. I feel compelled to add that I am still awaiting a response from President Trump and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear to the open letter blogs I shared for their benefit several months ago! For anyone in their inner circle reading this blog, please advise the President and Governor that I would love to hear from them!

For anyone who has not read my book, seen my podcast or read my blogs, I have included links to all of them below. In the meantime, I continue to thank God that He has given me these opportunities to write in retirement and enjoy the challenges in doing so. My advice to others who are retired, or contemplating retirement is to find things to pursue that challenge you and motivate you each day to do something that you have a genuine passion to undertake. I believe you will be thankful in doing so.

Links:

Almost Finished:  https://a.co/d/0bgRm3u0

 Commonwealth Matters U Tube Podcast: https://youtu.be/bdS5zetcedQ?si=9YfU2hJkymKPbDi5

Just A Little More to Say Website: www.ralphwilson1954.com.

God bless you and thank you for the privilege of your time in reading my blog.