Play is now work and vice versa

It's nice to be retired. No job to worry about losing my job in a bad economy, no concern about when to take vacation or if those days/weeks will be available, no concern over a possible strike every three years when the contract comes up, no daily commute in the pre-dawn hours to avoid the rush hour insanity, no boss asking for status of a project, no co-workers to interrupt your break or lunch, no calls in the middle of the night to come in to work because something broke that someone else can't fix.

Yup, I'm bored.

Life in the work-a-day world can be hectic and frustratingly dull. But it also occupies your time. It fills in your day. Fools you into thinking there is purpose to your life. It's a bit like "Cheers", isn't it? You go there not because the beer is any more tasty, the free bar snacks are better, or the seats are more comfortable; you go there because it is friendly and familiar. Work, after many years, becomes a social function. And a habit.

It's a social function because we have two lives... work and home. You have one social circle that is populated with neighbors and friends who share in interest in something and another that revolves around whatever it is you do for a living. Sometimes they intertwine, sometimes they do not. Over my 34 years ensuring your phone calls mostly made it through and stayed connected, the two lives overlapped and separated on an irregular basis.

In a sense, I miss that. The camaraderie, the separation of the two lives, the shifting between the two. I shouldn't miss it. I still do it.

Golf has become my "work life." I play three days a week. I see these guys only at the golf course, except for one or two (those "overlapper" friends). Some I see only at the golf course during the winter months. So, there is even another layer to it all.

I sometimes think I have a different persona when I play golf, just as I had a different persona at work. When I am home, I am not focused or intense, I am relaxed and unmotivated. And I am very patient, both with myself and with others On the golf course, I am intense, focused, and motivated. I am less patient with myself but not so much with others.

I am not alone in this. I have a friend in Dayton whose wife once described him as "Gerald" at work and "Gerry" at home. I inferred that the the two were as different as night and day. I never worked with him or seen him at work so I only know "Gerry." Gerry is funny, sociable, full of nonsense and sometimes rowdy. I am told that Gerald is all business and stern and demanding. I probably wouldn't like him all that much though I might respect him and appreciate those traits in the right context.

Was this a bit of what Robert Louis Stevenson was writing about in "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde"?