He Said
Retirement communities designed to attract specific, like-minded people are becoming a big deal for baby boomers. Neither the He nor She writers of this section are very close to retiring yet, but we can still dream.
Maybe my senior self would be interested in the the sci-fi community. I've been into a lot of sci-fi and space opera lately, but I'm concerned that would be filled with other old people who are way nerdier than I am. I don't want my nerdiness to be dwarfed by everyone else's in the community.
Part of my problem is that my interests can be very fleeting. A retirement community would be a big commitment. If I chose the sci-fi community because I watched 2001 the night before making the decision, and was then surrounded by a bunch of ex-comic-book-store dwellers with surgically enhanced vulcan ears, I might find myself ostracized by the very community I thought I would belong to.
This could make retiring, what I imagine as the ultimate stress-free decision, an extremely stressful time. It would rank up there with that decision everyone makes between 18 and 22 when deciding what job they will do for the next 40-odd years. Retiring will become that decision all over again, where people will have to scrutinize over what kind of people they will want to live around during their golden years.
That's a lot of responsibility for a 65-year-old.
Maybe this themed retirement community isn't such a good idea. Instead of a man without a country, I would be a man without a retirement community. My interests are too varied and I rarely get overly excited about any one thing.
I guess I would be stuck in the vanilla-themed community with a golf course, Thursday night euchre and 8:30 curfew. Everyone will be accepted as a person who can't make the tough decisions. That's kind of a theme.
She Said
What themed retirement community would you want to be a part of?
First, I just want to say that the fact that there are themed retirement communities is awesome. It's fantastic that people who can afford to retire not only in style, but in a community that's themed to their taste, have the opportunity to do so.
If I get the chance to choose a themed retirement home (assuming that I someday get to retire - fingers crossed), I'd probably want to go into one that is Harry Potter themed. Imagine: instead of the normal retirement community of pastel buildings and paved, winding pathways, a Hogwarts castle-inspired building, with the little community of Hogsmeade available for nearby visits to play shuffleboard and Exploding Snap.
Seriously, I could wake up in my house dormatory (I'd probably be a Slytherin - don't judge me), throw on a pair of slippers, shuffle down the hallway to the Great Hall and be force fed some sort of gruel cleverly disguised by names like "Ice Mice" and "Treacle Tart."
Following breakfast, I could attend magic classes and work on my spell casting or potion making. Because the best part of this community is that in order to get in, you have to agree to pretend that magic is real and that all spells and potions actually work.
So if some elderly woman waves her wand and yells "Accio!" while pointing at you, you'd have to stumble your way toward her, pretending that you were being summoned. Or, even better, if someone wanted to use a Polyjuice potion to turn into someone else, they would wear a name tag with the name of the person whose image they'd borrowed and all other residents would be required to go along with it.
Physical activity could be playing Quidditch in the yard or pretending to run away from giant Acromantula spiders.
Seriously, it would be such a great time. Can I be elderly now, please?
