Not far from Orlando, Fla. The Villages is a retirement community where the draw is that you can live like a millionaire on a budget. There is free golf and affordable housing. Happy hours begin at 11am, there is of course everything a retirement community could need or want, and, relevant for some, even the possibility for unlimited sexual encounters. I shared reading the rather long article with one friend who commented, “My definition of hell”. I shared it with another who said, “Would be quite boring.” Yet the communities are growing, attracting people from several states including many retirees from the CIA. The article didn’t mention any resident leaving, but there must be those who become satiated with a hedonistic lifestyle after a while and want to go elsewhere. There are those who no doubt define happiness in shallow terms, for whom non-stop fun is a good life. I would surmise, however, that for the many retirement is not a second childhood and needs to have some meaning—more than likely a meaning that would take them beyond their own pleasure. That may be why I can’t help wondering how many think along with me, about the waste of time, efforts, resources and opportunities such retirement communities represent.
Waste of Time?
