Panelists:
Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes, 'Tis, and Teacher Man
Poet Nikki Giovanni, author of On My Journey Now and Acolytes
Larry Gelbart, producer/comedy writer.  M*A*S*H/Tootsie

Alan:  Now is the time to volunteer. [laughs] I know you have some thoughts on that.

Frank McCourt: No volunteering, no--get paid!

Alan:  We deserve to be paid.

Frank: Get paid! It's always these corporate--"oh, volunteer." Or government says--the hell with volunteering.  For instance, there are millions of retired teachers--they could use them in the schools--pay them something. But they won't--when you're put out to pasture, you're put out to pasture.

Nikki Giovanni: I'm a big fan of volunteering. I do a writer's workshop and it's like having fourteen grandmothers, usually one grandfather. I get to interact with some people who are older that I am.  The average age of my workshop is about 80. And I enjoy that, I volunteer in the schools, I enjoy that.  I am also a big fan of reinventing yourself.  So at every particular point that you find something, you have to re-imagine who you are in the situation. I think money is a good idea, and I think money's fine, but I think also it's good to give something, because if you want to get something, the best way to get it is to give. It makes you happy, somebody needs you, it helps you get up in the morning when things are really sad--my mom died, and it's been very sad for me on that. I have a reason to continue because somebody needs me.

Alan:  Larry, I know you've talked about the need to feel necessary and desirable as we grow older.

Larry Gelbart:  Well, it's the one chance you get to approve of yourself, you know, what you're doing, what you mean to yourself. We're not born to retire; we're born to be productive. We're born to...I mean, god knows why we're born, but one of the reasons must be to create some sort of a life for yourself, and sitting around is not a life.