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FoxNews.com Redeployed? Repurposed? Couple looks for new words for "retirement." By Michael Y. Park After decades in the business-publications business, Howard Stone left his job last June, had his office good-bye party and renaissanced...retrofitted...redeployed. "Graduated," he offered. Whatever Howard, 65, and his wife Marika, 58, did when they left their jobs, they certainly didn't "retire." He busies himself with loads of nonprofit work, including one-on-one sessions with inner-city kids. She shed her former life as a business writer and became a yoga instructor, leading classes at hospitals, synagogues and at the couple's apartment. "The dictionary definition of retirement is to withdraw from the world, to retreat," Howard said. "But you have 20 or 30 years ahead of you and the opportunity to do something you hadn't had a chance to do before. That's one of the things that drives us." And so the Weehawken, NJ, couple has launched a campaign to replace the "R-word" with a more accurate term for the burgeoning and active segment of the population that's left the daily grind behind in favor of re-aspirement. Reactivation. Retirement (as in new wheels). At their Web site, www.2young2retire.com, the Stones have already received 57 submissions for new words, and they expect 20 or so more before they stop taking names on Friday night. The winner and runners-up will get the first of a new line of T-shirts that the couple hopes will help convince Webster's and the AARP to include an entry for a new word in their files. The AARP, by the way, was once known as the American Association of Retired Persons, but now goes by the acronym alone. They didn't care for the word "retired" either. And neither do most people who've evolved from the 40-hour work week. The AARP estimates some 80 percent of baby boomers will at least find a part-time job after "retiring." Eventually, the Stones hope to see everyone in the after-their-first-career set referring to themselves with a term that doesn't automatically bring up visions of rocking chairs, Bingo and lots of Touched by an Angel. "People are living longer, people are healthier, they're in better shape," Marika said. "In my parents' generation, you got a job and stuck it out until you got the gold watch. Now, people have as many as five different careers. There's more people out there than those who just cruise or play golf all the time." In fact, the Stones' Web site's main mission is to let people know what other non-retirees are up to. A different profile is posted regularly. They've featured a college professor-turned-actor, a businessman-turned-alpaca farmer and a former hospice nurse who turned a hot-dog stand and a family recipe into a successful condiment business in the Pacific Northwest. "And she's relishing her life now," Howard quipped. © Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved. Home | True
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