Loneliness: Still an Epidemic. What Can We Do?

Photo Credits: Pixabay.com

Last year, maybe even before then, I wrote about loneliness which several health organizations considered an epidemic and still do. England and Japan are two countries that have initiated government agencies specifically on loneliness and how it might be treated medically. A recent spate of articles and media interviews on the subject demonstrates that concern about loneliness has not diminished and may, in fact, have increased since I wrote the blog on it. 

My interest on the subject peaked when I listened to an interview with Derek Thompson whose article on loneliness appeared recently in The Atlantic. Thompson suggests that loneliness among Americans is visible in several ways. For instance, restaurants appear to be nearly empty while their takeout and carry out services are bustling with lines of people at the hostess/reception areas waiting for their orders. It’s cash and grab for the most part. According to Thompson, loneliness began to swell among Americans following the invention of television when it caught on in the 50’s. Think: ‘TV Dinners’ that followed suit. We hurried to consume our dinners just to watch the popular evening news followed by the episodic tales of cowboy westerns, entertaining sitcoms, occasional made-for-television dramas. Sports programming began invading our living rooms at this time and yes, I mean living rooms. That’s what we called the room where the family gathered to watch TV and where we conversed with visitors. (‘Family rooms’ made their architectural debut in the late 50’s and early 60’s and centered on the television.) Slowly, Americans were moving from front porch socializing and watching children play to family rooms tethered to a television, which we often rudely keep blaring even as guests enter our social circle.

Enter Robert D. Putnam, socio-political scientist of Harvard University whose ground-breaking book, Bowling Alone in America, stimulated thinking and questioning about the decline of social capital as one of the factors leading to the present state of loneliness in our society. Putnam demonstrates that we have become increasingly disconnected and our society suffers as a result with a “distrustful society not as efficient as a trusting one.” Social capital is, first, a collection of people in an organization and, second, a collection of organizations with common goals extending them and connecting them to the goals of other organizations. The capital of all this are the human beings who are members in the organizations. For example, a parish is a social collection and is part of a larger social collection: the religion of that parish. The PTA is a social collection of a school and is also part of the larger social capital of the city system of education, then the state, then the country. When these organizations suffer diminishment, the goals and achievements suffer as well. Many clergymen are lamenting the results of the Covid epidemic which kept people at home instead of worshipping in their churches. The fallout is catastrophic in some places.

Robert Waldinger, MD and Marc Schulz, PhD, have done research on the scientific study of happiness. Their book, The Good Life, is a comprehensive examination of a study that followed two generations of the same families for eighty years to determine what brings happiness to some while others only hope for it. I will spare you the amazing outcomes of the surveys, but I can say that wealth did not determine happiness even though it is the top goal and wish for millennials in 2007 and remained so ten years later even if they were not happy. I highly recommend their book. The authors have been interviewed many times in many media venues and their message remains the same: Happiness is based on relationships. 

Reflection

Waldinger and Schulz report consistently that “people connected to others are happier.” “Lonely people live shorter lives.” More than 60 million Americans report they are lonely. Concern for happiness is even rooted in the ancient philosophers especially Aristotle who taught that eudaemonia, the Greek word for peaceful stability in mind and soul was the goal of a Greek citizen. Perhaps this is why Thomas Jefferson used the term to describe what a model government provides for its citizens as the “pursuit of happiness.”The teachings of Jesus seem so comprehensive, including modern scholarship and ancient philosophical scholarship. Christians believe that the Scriptures contain many teachings about happiness and fulfillment in one’s spirituality. Examine the narrative of the Eight Beatitudes for a start. The Holy Trinity is a model of relationship love. These three persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit, are united in one as a relationship of love. Their love is interconnected and shows us how we must live as a loving community. All love is connected. That is why we profess marriage vows in assemblies of loved people; it is why we profess religious vows in assemblies of community. It is why on a hot, torrid night we are moved to lift a homeless person to offer food or comfort; it is why we write a check to donate to some group – acting in our name – to help someone else.

For this week: Examine what you do for others. Do you make connections? Are you a conduit for the grace Jesus wants to give to others through you?

Try to renew relationships, the core of our faith.

For all my Anonymous Angels who contact me and all who read this blog, I pray for you because you are seeking believers. I appreciate you and the wonderful God of love does also.