The Second Update on My Lunch-based Efforts to Battle Loneliness among Old Men
All is not lost
I have now hosted seven lunches on my back deck for retired men. The bi-weekly lunches are the centerpiece of my personal effort to battle the phenomenon whereby old men, those no longer in the workplace, fail to develop same-sex non-family support systems. Women do. Men don’t.
In my last update, after three lunches, I was discouraged. The older male resistance to pure social interaction — breaking bread together as opposed to pulling tree stumps — was more robust than I expected. After only three lunches, I had seen little progress.
After seven lunches, I am beginning to see some success and have managed to relax a little. A core group has formed. There are five men who have made the lunch a part of their schedule and look forward to it. Four guys, men I don’t yet consider part of a core group, have shown up at two of the lunches and seem to me comfortable coming again. Seven men have attended one time. Four of them will probably come again. Three probably won’t.
These are guys who, seeing my house for the first time fourteen weeks ago, were tentative and suspicious. Today, they arrive smiling and jovial, exchange pleasantries with my wife, and wander out to the back deck as if the place is their own. For a…
