Retired – a negative image?

A colleague asked me if I did not mind being labelled as ‘retired’.  At the time I did not think I would mind. But already, only two months after deciding to take it easier, I have experienced that being seen as retired seems to equate with being invisible. Not amongst friends – they are nearly all in the same age group – but certainly amongst younger people.  I almost get the feeling that today negative images surround those who grow old, despite all the hype about ‘experience’, ‘grey gold’ etc.
As an experiment, and to test people’s reaction, I have started to say that I have a business making garden mosaics as well as continuing with my previous business on a reduced scale. It seems to me that, simply because of having a title, a label, again, I have stopped being perceived as a drain on society. Or maybe I’m being super sensitive and misinterpreting people expressions… Very few have asked what exactly Garden Mosaics is – just as well, it is still just a theoretical project.