by David L. McKenna

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review by Ron Johnson

I urge you to get a copy of David McKenna’s Retirement Is Not for Sissies if you want to read a book that includes serious, semi-serious, and even humorous discussions of varied aspects of retirement. Topics include: contentment, politics, spirituality, deciding where to live and which house to buy, walking, medication side effects, ego, transfer of wealth, sex, full-time spouses, and neckties. McKenna’s book will cause you to chuckle, laugh out loud, say “amen,” and be introspective, while it encourages a stronger walk with Christ during retirement years. David and Janet McKenna have been retired for 14 years, and in this book David shares a wealth of information and insights helpful to those contemplating retirement and those already retired.

McKenna clearly has a gift for intermingling humor with serious thought. This approach makes the book fun to read and the challenging thought easier to understand. In any chapter one group of readers may see a well-written, humorous monolog, while another group will immediately recognize they are laughing at themselves because they have lived through the exact situation McKenna describes. As an illustration, I fully identified with the chapter “What Do You Do with a Closet Full of Ties?” Ironically, just before I read this chapter I unpacked and hung at least 50 ties and was wondering why I was doing so since in retirement I had almost no occasion to wear a tie.

In the introduction McKenna indicates the book is organized around six survival tools for Christian retirees of all ages. These tools, which create the six sections of the book, are: accept reality, expect surprises, think young, laugh at yourself, grow down, and lean forward.

McKenna obviously has fun developing lists in several chapters. My favorites are in the chapter titled “Where Are the Kid-Eating Bears When We Need Them?” In this chapter he has one list titled “What Is Old?” and another, “A List to Beat All Lists.” An excerpt from the second list illustrates the flavor readers will experience:

I have reached the age when:

• My weekly calendar is my pill box
• My stories are tolerated as oral history
• My nitroglycerine is not used for making bombs

In the chapter that contrasts sexual performance with intimacy, McKenna gives this challenge:

We Christians need to champion intimacy. Someone needs to send the media message that sexuality is a small part of a larger package. To be intimate is to put sex into perspective.…Intimacy is love at its best.

Even in chapters where serious topics are sincerely and openly discussed, readers will experience frequent chuckles.

McKenna’s Retirement Is Not for Sissies, which concludes with “An Open Letter to Boomers and Busters,” is truly a survival kit for Christians yet to retire, recently retired, and even for those who are experienced retirees. I have found few if any “survival kits” on any topic that will educate, inspire, and make the reader laugh like this book.