Fall will always feel like back-to-school time, regardless of whether our academic years—and even those of our children—are but distant memories. Nevertheless, the transition from summer generally means saying goodbye to endless carefree days and preparing for the more structured months ahead. Maybe that’s why this season is, for many, a time of reflection, of new beginnings, of opportunities to ask, “What do I do now?”
For those who’ve made the jump from calendars packed with work deadlines and career responsibilities to schedules that suddenly require more imagination, planning and effort to set, various questions may arise. How do we continue to feel useful to society? How do we fill all of our newly free time when even the concept of downtime has been foreign to us for so long? How do we live as comfortably as we have on our new, post-career incomes? And how do we befriend this new daily solitude, far from those with whom we’ve long shared our nine-to-fives? We all dream that the transition will be peaceful, seamless, with a slew of new challenges and adventures at the ready: Get to that stack of books on the night table—even write a book to add to the pile— travel, finally get enough rest.
Former editor-in-chief Murray Lewis, whose words filled this space for so many years, kindly supported us through this wonderful magazine’s own recent transition. I’ll never be able to thank him enough for his generosity. Still, for the current Good Times team—and on behalf of those who’ve moved on—the question is just as insistent: “What do we do now?”
The answer is simple: Continue sharing our thoughts in this column (or, my thoughts, until the next, permanent editor-in-chief fully takes the reins); continue filling these pages with everything you, dear readers, are looking for; continue working hard to ensure Good Times evolves with your interests. Because, like our former colleagues who are now busily starting new life chapters, we at Good Times hope one day to feel enormous pride in having left our mark.
But this magazine is, above all, yours. So if you have questions to ask, opinions to share, subjects you’d like us to cover, even new sections you’d like to read, please feel free to contact us: by email, at editor@goodtimes.ca; on our website; or via our Facebook page.
