In My Third Act: Kathy Lindquist on Feeling Liberated in Retirement

In our July edition of In My Third Act, Jane Fleishman writes about her conversation with Kathy Lindquist, a key member of Third Act Massachusetts and Third Act Educators.

“As a young person I wasn’t an activist. But I was disgruntled about a great many things!” says Kathy Lindquist of Third Act Massachusetts and Third Act Educators. “I noticed inequities, things that rubbed me the wrong way. Looking back, I think my activism is like a seed pearl. The things I noticed that weren’t right were the grit, the irritants, that eventually turned me into an activist.”

Third Act allows elders who’ve gained understanding of the wrongs they see to take action to address them. Kathy fills important roles not only with the Educators and Massachusetts (MA) working group but also the Welcome Call Team.

I’m not a joiner. I like to march to my own drum. But I got on some early Third Act calls and was astonished at the distinguished, accomplished people on the calls and the caliber of the conversations.

Kathy grew up near a former mill town in New Hampshire, the youngest of seven. The local high schools were underfunded, and only a small percentage of students went on to college. However, a nearby boy’s boarding school wanted to go co-ed, and she earned a scholarship to become one of 11 girls in a school of 250. “It was challenging,” says Kathy, “but I learned a lot,” and questioning the disparity of the rules for male and female students was a small step toward activism.

Kathy, one of 11 girls at a boys high school. — Kathy, (top left–back row) one of only 11 girls at a boys high school, (just enough for a field hockey team–no substitutes!). “We learned to support each other while also pursuing our own goals. Working groups are like a team that’s learning how to make big things happen by understanding each other’s strengths!”

Kathy’s political awareness was also fed by Vietnam, the “television war,” that came into America’s living rooms every night. One of her brothers saw combat duty and came back with PTSD.

Her early career was in publications management for consulting organizations related to training. As her family grew to three children, she transitioned to teaching English at the high school level. Teaching seminal texts of American literature, she discovered how little her students understood about their government.

She received training from a national civics education group and began to offer her students project-based learning opportunities that engaged them in taking their own “disgruntlement” and using it to advocate for policy change. “Never, ever be afraid to question,” she would tell her students.

Kathy with a high school student — In her second act, Kathy was a high school English and civics teacher.

After retirement, Kathy sought ways to use her teaching experience to effect change. “I’m not a joiner,” she says. “I like to march to my own drum. But I got on some early Third Act calls and was astonished at the distinguished, accomplished people on the calls and the caliber of the conversations.”

Kathy appreciates Third Act’s focus on written advocacy. She writes Letters to the Editor to newspapers for a team Fred Hewett created that started in Massachusetts and now extends to key swing states. It’s an opportunity to learn and to be heard on crucial issues.

I noticed inequities, things that rubbed me the wrong way. Looking back, I think my activism is like a seed pearl. The things I noticed that weren’t right were the grit, the irritants, that eventually turned me into an activist.

Kathy recently created a mobile voter registration toolkit which she’s happy to share with any Working Group in states that allow online voter registration. Though Third Act MA uses it at community colleges it can also be used anywhere for youth or community-focused voter registration. The kit includes a template for a Voter Registration QR code name tag lanyard for volunteers to wear and posters to use for event tables or on pedestal signs.

Kathy with her husband and 3 daughters — Kathy with her husband and 3 children, one of whom is an environmental educator.

Learning, planning and strategizing are activities Kathy has always enjoyed. She’s still doing these with Third Act, but in contrast to earlier times in her life, she now feels freer to fully engage in effecting change. As a teacher, while she’d encourage her students to act, she herself felt constrained. In retirement, she finally feels free to say what she wants and to take direct action.

“I feel liberated!” Kathy says. “Old and Bold!”

Jane Fleishman

Jane Fleishman is a Third Actor residing in Nashville, TN who is regularly pulled to NYC where her first grandchild lives and to the Southwest where so many of her other family members live. She is retired from a social work career mainly focused on creating and promoting volunteer and civic leadership opportunities for youth in their First Act.

Kathy Lindquist

Kathy Lindquist is a retired high school ELA/Civics teacher who steadfastly believes in the power of the written word and civil discourse reinforced with action. Drawn to Third Act by the strong sense of community forged by acceptance, common purpose, and a new vision of the possibilities ahead, she looks forward to causing good trouble with this group of very cool elders!