Essentially, that is what Centennial resident Joseph Sturniolo, retirement alternatives advocate and author, told a crowd of 200 baby boomers and pre-boomers who gathered at the Inverness Hotel last Thursday (Feb. 28) to gain insights and inspiration to pursue, as Sturniolo put it, "a more meaningful retirement."

Sturniolo is the founder of Denver-based ROAR, an organization that helps boomers and others facing life transitions rediscover or redeploy their talents to pursue new careers or avocations in their traditional retirement years for the benefit of others. The crowd obtained advance copies of his book, "The Caterpillar that Roared," (subtitled "Awakening the Lion Within") that will be issued by New York publisher Morgan James in June. It is a parable that he said illustrates the challenges and the setbacks people must embrace in "rewriting the script for retirement."

"We are living longer than ever before," he told the crowd. "Playing golf or bridge or otherwise just trying to stay busy for 20 years or more can strip life of its meaning. We need to un-retire the traditional concept of retirement."

He pointed to several examples of boomers who are breaking the mold for their traditional retirement years. One has started a successful teen sexual abstinence program, another is starting a battered women's shelter and still another is creating a program to benefit orphans in Africa.

Sturniolo, who abandoned a theatrical career to support his family as a stock broker and successful financial counselor, said his own malaise about his approaching retirement years - as well as that he saw in other boomers - led him to seek the counsel of two clinical psychologists with expertise in life transitions who helped him to create the ROAR workshop approach.

He said that now, as a public speaker and advocate who is approaching traditional retirement age, "I've found an outlet for talents that have been set aside for a long, long time."