Since he usually has summers off, this season with Atticus hasn't felt particularly different. But now? Now that schools all around us are in session, Ramona's started her second year of college, and all of my husband's colleagues have returned to work? Now we're feeling it:
Atticus is retired.
Yup. After thirty-five years of teaching, he's retired from full-time work. (And from teetering stacks of sophomore and senior essays hauled home so many weekends.) He plans to sub here and there (so maybe it's more accurate to call him semi-retired?) but it's likely that he'll never again lead a deep dive into Hamlet, or introduce kids to To Kill a Mockingbird, or do his best to help a high school student understand gerunds or tweak a dangling modifier.
As for us? I know we'll keep talking about those things. We'll keep discussing, learning, and sharing about literature and language, and we'll keep seeking to understand and revel in the world around us. Our hearts will still leap up, as Wordsworth's did. It's a new phase of life, but he's still Atticus. "The Child is the father of the Man." Long live the child, the man, the retiree.
My heart leaps up.
by William Wordsworth
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
