And Who Am I to Fight the Odds
Of man’s entitlements and gods…
by Brian Wright

Please forgive the extraction from the oft-cited verse of the English classicist scholar Alfred E. Housman (1859-1936):

And how am I to face the odds
of man’s bedevilment and God’s?
I, a stranger and afraid
in a world I never made.[1]

Why I came to recall this little snippet of poetry is described partly in the footnote, but how it bears connection to the topic of my column today—a personal yielding to receipt of Social Security payments (and even liking it) —is, well, a stretch. All I can tell you is I truly never thought I’d reach the age where Social Security would either be a) a substantial contribution to keeping me in material existence or b) even keep itself in material existence. Continue reading →