A Useful Word In Retirement

I know this is going to sound strange, but I have read several articles recently about a single Danish word.  This word was voted the favorite word in Denmark in a contest ending in September of last year, and that is what seems to have attracted the attention of copy writers who are desperate to find a subject to write about so they can meet a deadline.  The word is "pyt" (pronounced like pid in Denmark).  The word seems to have caught the eye of a relatively large group of writers and a few readers like myself.

The contest to determine the favorite word was conducted by the Danish Library Association, and the public was invited to vote on their favorite.  I first saw this word when I was reading about the happiness level of the Danish population when compared with populations in other parts of the world.  Denmark seems to always rank among the happiest two or three countries of the world when surveys are conducted.  It recently ranked second behind Finland on the United Nations 2019 Happiest Countries Index. A big part of the reason may be this little word -- "pyt".  As a matter of reference, the United States ranked nineteenth on the same index.

Some Danish to English translation dictionaries indicate that "pyt" = "puddle", but this seems to be an oversimplification.

There is no word for word English translation for this word.  English speakers have to use a couple of sentences to describe the meaning.  Here is one of the attempts I found on the internet:   ‘Pyt’ is used to express that you accept a situation is out of your control, and even though you might be annoyed or frustrated, you decide not to waste unnecessary energy on thinking more about it. You accept it and move on.

Is there a connection with this word being the favorite word and the overall happiness level of the Danish population?  Maybe we need a word like this in English.  Then we could use it when something out of our control goes bad, instead of the (four letter) words we typically use that indicate things like anger or total disgust.  Perhaps we Americans would be as generally happy as the Danes if we wasted less energy thinking about annoying or frustrating things that are out of our control.

Since my blog is about the thoughts of a retired guy,  I thought I might relate this to retirement.  Retirement is not a new life.  It is a stage of life. 

A lot of people get concerned about how to get ready for retirement.  Or what they will do in retirement.  Or when is the best time to retire.  It seems like more planning goes into retirement than for any other stage of life.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."  Another famous general, Colin Powell is quoted as saying, "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."

"Planning is indispensable, but plans are worthless,"  because life is what happens while we are making other plans.

No matter how much we plan, things not covered by the plan will happen.  Even if we do everything perfectly our lives will not be perfect.  Yes, even in retirement.  It does mean that the most important thing in a good retirement is not the planning for, but the living it to the fullest.  That is how we can be happiest.

This collection of essays are my thoughts as I try to do that.