“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” Kurt Vonnegut
It seems that in America, mass shootings are becoming an almost ordinary occurrence.
After such an incident people express grief, shed tears, hold memorials, say prayers, make heartfelt speeches and… fatalistically wait for the next massacre to occur.
Tightly controlling the sale of guns (a measure strenuously opposed by the GOP) would be an obvious way to curb that scourge, but eradicating loneliness would also be another way to limit the carnage.
Because lonely people (consciously or unconsciously) are angry, resentful, and these alienated individuals are irrational, dangerous human beings.
Most of the shootings are perpetrated by disaffected loners.
Anger is a manifestation of a deeper issue… and that, for me, is based on insecurity, self-esteem and loneliness. Naomi Campbell
In our age of effortless, instant communication, isolation is paradoxically the most virulent disease. And you don’t have to be old to be lonely. Loneliness strikes indiscriminately young and old, blacks and whites, poor and wealthy.
I recently met an enthusiastic young woman on the pétanque field.
Her name is Jenny and she piqued my interest when she mentioned that she was working on a project “to bring together different generations”.
Her undertaking meshes neatly with my own philosophy. I always believed that to remain in the game you need to mingle and interact with people of all ages and background. Jenny’s goal is as I understand it, to integrate different generations in a big happy melting pot.
We have a lot to learn from previous generations, and similarly seniors need to keep in touch with Milleniums in order to avoid becoming human flotsam.
If you don’t want to be classified and treated like a relic, you need to mingle and interact with younger folks.
Youth is impetuous. It often takes an older person to temper the impulsiveness of a hothead, but it also take a younger person to creatively think outside the envelope.
To sum it up we all need each other, and Jenny could be the linchpin who could in our own group bring about a solution to this modern predicament.
If you see that young lady on the field, don’t be a stuck-up geezer; approach her, talk to her and include her and her friends in all your activities.
Alain
Thank you so much for sharing Alain! I feel it is so important that every human being feels connect to another which can amplify the value of life. The exchange of wisdom that happens when generations mingle is a gift unmatched. When we do this, we simultaneously work on eradicating loneliness, which can be fatal. Let’s gather for games, share stories, laughs & our time.
The San Rafael pétanque courts/club is the perfect start :)
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