{"id":822,"date":"2014-01-20T09:02:38","date_gmt":"2014-01-20T14:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.townehouse.net\/phoenix\/?p=822"},"modified":"2014-01-20T09:02:38","modified_gmt":"2014-01-20T14:02:38","slug":"definition-of-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=822","title":{"rendered":"Definition of Self"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Retired\"<\/a>In an earlier blog post<\/a> I wrote of passing milestones in my life. I have now passed yet another milestone. Friday, January 17, 2014 was my last working day with the City of Cincinnati Police Department. I have been getting up and heading to work at various assignments and various locations within the Cincinnati Police Department for the past 42 \u00bd years, and now it is over. I am not sure how I feel about that. I am not one of those people who chased retirement like it was the Holy Grail. I never looked forward to the day I would retire and in fact approached it with some degree of dread. I have been asked, after announcing my intentions to retire, what I am going to do. The short answer is, I do not have a clue. That somewhat bothers me as I think I am supposed to have made \u201cretirement plans<\/a>\u201d. I did not.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Counting my time in the military, I have been a civil servant for 50 \u00bd years. That is all I have been, and that is all that I know. I have never held a full-time job in the private sector. I know not of that mysterious place. AS a retired person,, I am no longer sure what the definition of me is. As a full-time active duty member of the United States Navy for eight years, I was a sailor, and that defined me. As a member of the Cincinnati Police Department I was a Police Officer or Police Specialist or Police Sergeant for 25 years, and that defined me. As a member of the Cincinnati Police Department\u2019s Information Technology group I was a Network Administrator and a Certified Novell Engineer, and that also defined me. But now that has all changed. Now nothing defines me. Is \u201cretiree\u201d a definition of self?<\/p>\n

Do not get the point of this wrong. I am not whining about the lack of definition. In fact, I consider it a challenge. I am now seeking a new definition of self. Referring back to what I said earlier, I do not know what I am going to do, and therefore I do not know what the definition of me will be. I am not totally wandering aimlessly in a sea of uncertainty. I will review, revise, and begin working on the bucket list.<\/a> I will pay more attention to my wife (something that I hope is not too little too late). I feel confident that with the extra time on my hands I will be putting more blog articles out there (did I hear someone moan?). I will begin immediately to begin Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, and Budgeting the rest of my life (that sounds familiar). So I am off to my new adventure as I seek to redefine myself once again.<\/p>\n

So now my first order of business is out of the way. \u00a0I have written this retirement article. \u00a0. . .now what? \u00a0I am open to suggestions, feel free to plunge right in and help me to figure this out. \u00a0So far I have had suggestions of running, walking, learning the guitar, taking up a hobby, writing a book, and doing nothing. \u00a0All (except running) are within the realm of possibilities.<\/p>\n

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an earlier blog post I wrote of passing milestones in my life. I have now passed yet another milestone. Friday, January 17, 2014 was my last working day with the City of Cincinnati Police […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextrevo_audio_file_creation_date":"","_daextrevo_text_to_speech":"","_daextrevo_document_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/THFI.png?fit=214%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1181,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=1181","url_meta":{"origin":822,"position":0},"title":"Cincinnati Police Department Serves As Role Model","author":"Tom Lind","date":"November 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently I viewed a news article regarding the civil unrest currently taking place in Ferguson, Missouri, published by KDSK in St. Louis Missouri. The topic of the article was that Ferguson could learn valuable lessons from Cincinnati, specifically with regards to the efforts taken by Cincinnati following its own period\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"oh-cincinnati optimized","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/oh-cincinnati-optimized.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":508,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=508","url_meta":{"origin":822,"position":1},"title":"Cincinnati Police Uniforms","author":"Tom Lind","date":"July 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, I tried. I gave it a long time and really tried to like the new look of the Cincinnati Police Department Uniforms. I tried, and I failed. It is not that I do not like change. I embrace change, when change is needed. But changing the Cincinnati Police Department\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cincinnati Police Uniform","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/popesalute_600x297-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1314,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=1314","url_meta":{"origin":822,"position":2},"title":"The Wrong Man","author":"Tom Lind","date":"April 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I have followed\u00a0\u00a0the news regarding the incident in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9th, 2014 when a man, Michael Brown, viciously attacked a Police Officer, Darren Wilson, who subsequently had to resort to deadly force in order to defend himself from life threatening violence. Notice how the preceding relates the basic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/o-FAKE-SMILE-facebook.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/o-FAKE-SMILE-facebook.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/o-FAKE-SMILE-facebook.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/o-FAKE-SMILE-facebook.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/o-FAKE-SMILE-facebook.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":982,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=982","url_meta":{"origin":822,"position":3},"title":"Best Police Agency in the U.S.?","author":"Tom Lind","date":"September 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"On September 2nd the Cincinnati Police Department tweeted a picture of Chief Blackwell addressing the newly formed Police Recruit Class and making the statement \u201cDay 1 of joining the best police agency in the US and we are expecting all of you to make it! \u201cWhat caught my attention was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"BwiRac0IAAAc-5N","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/BwiRac0IAAAc-5N-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1268,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=1268","url_meta":{"origin":822,"position":4},"title":"Jeffrey Blackwell \u2013 The Puppet Police Chief","author":"Tom Lind","date":"January 31, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week the Townehouse Phoenix provided insight to issues with regards to the current Police Chief of Cincinnati, Jeffrey Blackwell. It is not my intent to rehash the same talking points I discussed last week. The purpose of this article is to continue the ongoing saga of how Jeffrey Blackwell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"eddbe9d6d0220d1ce17c1f0f2a225328","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/eddbe9d6d0220d1ce17c1f0f2a225328.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11951,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=11951","url_meta":{"origin":822,"position":5},"title":"The Revolving Door of Police Chiefs","author":"Tom Lind","date":"December 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"For the third time since this blog has been in existence I find myself writing about a new Police Chief taking over the helm of the Cincinnati Police Department. That fact, in and of itself, is not that mind-boggling. But when you consider that this is the third chief to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CWyFPf3WsAAcU8C.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CWyFPf3WsAAcU8C.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CWyFPf3WsAAcU8C.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CWyFPf3WsAAcU8C.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p38YRh-dg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}