Hanging out with the boys
On ancient Greece, college towns, and an effort to get older men to steer clear of dangerous social isolation
An initiative led by a professor at the University of Northern Iowa is getting area men together for "Men's Sheds", gatherings to learn new skills or participate in service activities. It's an effort to address problems of social isolation that tend to get pretty bad among adult men in America, particularly after retirement.
■ Fraternal organizations used to take up a lot of this space, but they've been in a deeply regrettable decline for decades. It would be a symptom of better civic health if people spontaneously formed and sustained these kinds of activities, but if they're not doing it, the university deserves applause for stepping in to help pilot-test the model.
■ Young men with nothing productive to do have been recognized as a social hazard since at least the time of ancient Greece. But older men without ties to community and productive activities are a poorly-recognized danger to themselves: A whole bunch of pathologies are tied to growing old and under-attached.
■ The real challenge is in finding ways to scale up an effort like this. A university town ought to be, relatively speaking, a fantastic place to age -- with more than the usual number of cultural, educational, and social events. But a lot of people choose to age in place far from college towns. Then it becomes a problem of both access and initiative.
