Posted 07/07/2010 - 03:36:25pm by Terry Nagel
Ruth Wooden
Ruth Wooden, chairman of the board of Civic Ventures, which publishes Encore.org, was surprised at the reactions she received when she recently told friends she was planning to retire from her position as president of a nonprofit. Some people asked, "Are you sick?" But the most frequent response was, "What are you going to do next?"
Although her 10 years on the board have given her a complete understanding of the options available in later life, she says in a piece on More.com, "I am not yet sure exactly what it is I want to do in my encore. I know enough to know I'm not moving to Florida to play bridge or golf, and I doubt I'll be joining the Peace Corps, though that was the encore career my own mother chose, going to Yemen of all places at age 70."
Comparing herself to a "canary in the mine" among her boomer friends, she muses, "Most of us are inventing this new life stage on the fly and in secret."
