AI Image (Gemini), prompt by Author
In the spring of 2024, I set out to solve the problem of retired men growing old without a robust same-sex social network. The issue was one I’d studied during a stint in a graduate gerontology program, seen in person in my pre-retirement elder law practice, and was living in my retirement. My quixotic solution was to fight through my macho-male fear of social rejection and ask a few retired men like myself to come to my home for lunch.
(I have written about the first year of this project here, here, and here. I wrote about the second year here.)
I hosted these lunches twice a month on my patio as long as the weather would permit throughout the summer and fall of 2024 and 2025.
Now it is 2026. The first lunch of the season wrapped up yesterday. We ate bratwurst with onions and peppers, white bean soup, and a local berry medley. We talked about our families, our heritages, and our vacation plans for the summer.
When I began this project, my social anxiety was over the top. Why would older men, retired men, want to come to my house if there wasn’t a ditch to dig or an engine to be fixed? Would any of them even agree to come? If they did agree, would anybody actually…