I believe time is more important than any amount of money. You can grow money (invest), but you can’t grow more time. You can borrow money, but you can’t really borrow time. Once retired you have time and hopefully enough money, maybe even the latter in excess. The question is how to use these benefits. One answer may include volunteering to help nonprofit organizations serve others.
Rather than just joining a board of directors and/or writing donation checks (or PayPal-ing, Venmo-ing, Zelle-ing, what-ever), consider creatively donating time. One fun way is by revisiting hobbies and interests and using them to help nonprofits. That’s what I did. Even though I still enjoy some freelance instructional design work related to my dental career, when I turned 65, I committed to volunteering time helping nonprofits in three ways: art modeling, radio, and gardening.
Art Modeling
First sitting as a model for artists in 1984 was also my introduction to meditation. It started when my dental school physiology professor needed a model for an evening drawing group. I volunteered. I thought art modeling would serve me in two ways: it would force me to slow down for hours and finally stop, rest, and partially recover from my manic schedule. Plus, I’d make some desperately needed money. I remember that evening’s pay covered our groceries for a week.
Fast forward to moving to Athens in 1995, the year the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation (OCAF) began in Watkinsville, where I found a reason to model again. Art modeling requires creativity, much like acting. You step into character and maybe begin with 25 minutes of one- or two-minute warmup gestures, then move to five- or 10-minute poses for 25 minutes, and end with 25-minute poses with five-minute breaks. Long poses become meditative as you rest your mind along with your body. Artists interested in drawing figures really appreciate the depth of having a real person vs. a two-dimensional photograph. And artists know when a creative model is enjoying the session. Last November someone told me, “Everybody was so inspired! Thank you for inspiring us.” That level of gratitude inspires ME.
I’ve learned to be careful with long poses, making sure body parts remain passive. For instance, for the “Barefooted Birdwatcher” pose that had six 25-minute segments with short breaks, I kept the binoculars simply resting on my hand rather than hold them. That’s a change I’ve initiated for age. Another relates to pay. That 1984 evening at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art was with a large group of professional artists. The tips added up! Pay for private groups with tips is still impressive.
I’ve also changed how I use the money. In 2022, I decided to donate everything I made working with artists to a nonprofit. When I told a group I was modeling for that I would give my proceeds to Primarily Possums (PrimarilyPossums.org), a wildlife rehab group in Hull, it gave me a beautiful opportunity to talk about that organization and answer questions. And, when I iced the deal by saying I would match my final tally, the artists opened their hearts (and wallets) and we raised enough money to feed the opossums and other animals for almost TWO weeks! I returned to model for that group last November and they were again very generous.
I continue to use modelling sessions to educate about Primarily Possums and I’m proud the Georgia Museum of Art asked me to model on Feb. 8, for their “Baroque Figure Drawing Open Studio.” What an elegant place to talk about opossums!
Radio
As a teenager, I enjoyed spending weekend nights hanging out with my older brother after midnight, not as a truant but at a radio station where he was the overnight DJ. I fell in love with all the station’s buttons and knobs and levers and enjoyed “playing radio” in the production room.
In 1975, I proudly earned my FCC license to be a commercial radio DJ and eventually in college took a class working at its public radio station, continuing for three years. 40 years later I got interested in amateur (“ham”) radio and earned my license for shortwave, which has enabled me to volunteer alongside first-aid workers at UGA football games as a radio communicator.
But, my most radio-related fun yet is serving on the Community Advisory Council for WUGA, the local National Public Radio affiliate at UGA. Promoting public radio, which I’ve championed for decades, brings me joy. I get to talk with people like those attending last fall’s Boom Senior Expo, where someone asked me, “Why is my car reception of WUGA so bad?” With my ham knowledge, I was able to explain the relationship between antenna length and radio frequency. (A longer antenna of proper length is better. Remember those 30-inch antennas that were on car fenders? Through my child eyes you were rich if yours went up when you started your car and down when you parked it. But you didn’t get to put a brightly colored foam ball on the tip. Nyah!)
Gardening
I grew up in a poor family of eight, the third of six kids (five were boys). There never were any leftovers, just plenty of “hand me down” clothes (none for my sister, though). I now especially appreciate good food, maybe a bit TOO much. Sadly, our house is too shady for gardening. So, I garden with one of my best buds, Dennis Mason, at his Oconee County place in Salem. Imagine eating broccoli and Brussels sprouts and asparagus a few hours after they’re picked — a far cry from childhood frozen dinners, rice, and canned peas.
In 2023, Dennis expanded his organic garden to help the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia do its incredible work feeding people. Rather than just making cash donations, I now also help Dennis garden. I carry the freshly picked fruits and vegetables to the food bank. I felt like royalty one day last August when I pushed the cart onto the scale and heard “238 pounds!” That was music to my ears and a record (so far). While canned food donations are good, fresh produce is GREAT! Since Dennis started this, we’ve delivered more than 3,000 pounds of all kinds of fresh produce, including new varieties he enjoys discovering like small “Easter in Autumn” tomatoes.
If you really want to live in retirement, go beyond just attending classes. Find something you love to do and parlay it into service. Maybe become a volunteer art model? Or take pictures for charitable events, or provide your photography skills and donate what you make to a select little-known nonprofit like my Primarily Possums. If you get lost in doing what you love, let that become a service to people, or animals, or plants, or maybe the mineral most important to us all: Earth.
Oh, and if you’re wondering, “Yes, but do you model nude?”
“Only if they ask.”
Rick is a native Georgian and retired dentist who has lived in Athens since 1995 enjoying as many new experiences as he can. This is his third featured article for Boom Magazine.
