Lonely singles find
a cure in community. For more information see cohousing.
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There is a cure for loneliness and that is community. We primarily find community in non-profit groups (including churches) in the United States. In times past, when America was more rural, we had community where we lived. That is no longer true of urban America. However, there is a growing trend in the US, imported from Denmark and Europe. That trend is cohousing and/or intentional communities. An example of an intentional community is an ecovillage. Remember that there are two types of loneliness--social and emotional. Social loneliness is cured by a social network. Emotional loneliness is cured by at least one really close confidant. Americans have become a nation of lonely people. We live separately in the suburbs in our land of automobiles. Each evening we return from work and hit the remote to enter our garage, maybe waving at a neighbor or two. We spend a few minutes in our fenced backyard, then leave the next morning for work, having only seen our family--and--in the case of many singles that is the dog. Even when living in apartments, we are isolated by the American reverence for privacy and our fear that someone will think we are "weird" if we are friendly. Or, in the case of many of us, a general fear of the "weird" unknown neighbor who is friendly. That is changing through cohousing, a few neighborhood associations, and intentional communities such as an ecovillage. Cohousing and intentional communities offer you an instant cure for social loneliness in the form of a social network. The cure for emotional loneliness takes a bit longer, of course, but the opportunity to make a close friend is there, also. |
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