An
Early Retirement Poem
about
The Joy of Not
Working
(That Should Have Been Written by
Ernie Zelinski, But
Wasn't)
In 2003 while working on the 21st edition of the
The Joy of Not
Working, I was surprised to
come across a retirement
poem called The Joy of Not Working on a
Website. I really liked the poem. Indeed, I should have
written it, but I know that I am not competent enough
poetically to have done so.
Thus, on June 15 I e-mailed someone anonymous at the website
asking whether I could use the poem in the new edition of the
book, which was to be published in October 2003. There was no
response until
June 10, 2004, almost a year later, when I received the
following e-mail:
dear Ernie,
SORRY that it took me so long to reply to the
private message you left on my website. i've been away
on an open-ended vacation (no work!) since May 2003, so
i haven't read private messages for me till now. please
feel free to include my poem "The Joy of Not Working"
in your book with permission to do so, if it's not too
late already. i appreciate your interest in my work.
once again, SORRY about the long delay in replying to
your message.
Van Tu
I promptly e-mailed Van Tu and informed him that the new
edition of the book had already been published. I asked him for
permission to use the poem in another book and on my
forthcoming website. I also asked him for his mailing address
so that I could send him a copy of my book
The Joy of Not
Working. Here is Van Tu's
response:
dear Ernie,
please feel free to use my poem The Joy of Not
Working in your book Graffiti for the Soul and on your
The Joy
of Not Working Website, with
proper acknowledgement. i'm enjoying the tropical
beaches in southeast Asia at the moment! i'll think
of a convenient mailing address and give it to you
later. thanks.
Van
Obviously Van Tu practices
The Joy of Not
Working better than I do, even
though I wrote a fairly lengthy book on the topic whereas he
wrote a short poem!
His poem follows; I believe that you will like it,
particularly the closing stanza.
The
Joy of Not
Working
I spend the whole
early morning
In bed
Listen to light music
Daydreaming on and off
I leisurely take a
long hot shower
Scrubbing myself from top to toe
Enjoying my excellent
Health
I go for a slow
walk after lunch time
Admiring the lovely flowers in the sunshine
Along the way
I ride my bicycle
all over town
The cool breeze blowing in my face
Transports me back to sweet
Saigon
When I was a
carefree innocent teenager!
Those who know
don't work . . .
(COPYRIGHT
©
2010 by
Van
Tu
— Used with Special
Permission)
Surprisingly, four days later, before I could respond to
him, Van Tu sent me another e-mail:
hello again, Ernie. i've just thought of something.
have you ever explored the idea of living on a tropical
beach as a fun way to save money (and to retire early)?
life here is very healthy and relaxing because of the
cheap cost of living, warm sunshine, lovely beaches,
and slow pace of life. i feel so comfortable here that
i don't intend to go back to the USA any time soon!
Van
My immediate response was a feeling of envy for this
mysterious Van Tu who can forget his website for a year. I knew
nothing about this guy. Where was he from? The e-mail name he
used was "non effort" (one word). The guy's English was great,
but he seldom used capital letters in his e-mails when he
should have - talk about non effort! Because I was curious
about this guy, I e-mailed a bit of information about myself
and asked him if he could tell me something about himself. He
replied a few days later.
Ernie
thanks for telling more about yourself. i wish i had
read your private message to me in June 2003 instead of
June 2004! that's the main drawback of living on a
tropical beach: you become very lazy. one reason why i
mentioned the idea of living on a tropical beach to you
is because i think it may give you some materials for
your next book, or at least a new chapter of one of
your books. i know of many Westerners (including some
of my friends) who would love to be able to retire
early and live on a tropical beach, but they have no
idea how to go about it. i know how to do it for
myself, but i can't teach it to others. unlike you, i'm
not a good teacher at all, since i'm an introspective
loner by nature. i write mainly to express my own
thoughts, feelings, and fantasies. LOL.
by the way, i'm 45 years old. however, being a
Capricorn, i seem to age in reverse, and i'm now much
more healthy and athletic than when i was in my 20's
and 30's! the outdoor life here has done wonders for my
fitness, and i've become the #1 swimmer on the beach
here. LOL. i wrote the poem The Joy of Not Working when
i was living in
California. now my routine is slightly different,
since my daytime (from 11 to 5) is spent on the beach
on most days. so i guess i've become a full-time"beach
boy"...
i read that you were an engineer who semi-retired at
the age of 30. well, i was a computer scientist who
stopped working in hi-tech at the age of 30 and then
retired fully at the age of 40. between 30 and 40, i
had to hold a menial government job to avoid
starvation, and i really hated it. (the only good thing
is that it'll give me a small pension from the age of
50 onward.) so i don't ever want to work again!
Van
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Poems See:
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The Joy of Not
Working
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COPYRIGHT ©
2010 by Ernie J.
Zelinski
Owner of VIP
BOOKS
and Author of the
World's Best Retirement
Book
All Foreign Rights Reserved by Ernie
Zelinski
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