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Advanced Romance*
live any other way. I recently asked the 35,000 members of my Sixty and Me community if they would prefer to live alone, with others, or in a managed community. Ninety Five percent of the women who responded said that they would prefer to live alone.
So says Eric Klinenberg, author of Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone. He conducted research that shows that people living alone are statistically more likely to reach out, socialize and build strong social networks than their peers who are married. According to Mr. Klinenberg: “Clearly, contrary to popular belief, for more of us, living alone is a choice, not a sentence.”32
However, this is not to belittle the power of loneliness. It can easily suck a person into a soul hole so deep that there’s no climbing out. And even the most autonomous souls can be assaulted by the family joys
of the winter holidays and the summer festivities. To
be alone July 4th, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years can be devastating. If alone, plan carefully for each major day. There are millions of singles in your loneliness boat and if their loneliness is coordinated, it’s no longer so lonely. Serving the homeless food on holidays is better than nothing. Working is good too.
And, just because you are married or in a relationship doesn’t mean that loneliness is no longer a factor. How many movies are there decrying that