A collection of essays about the joys and struggles of being alone by 22 literary writers including: Lev Grossman, Jhumpa Lahiri, Lena Dunham, Jesmyn Ward, Yiyun Li, and Anthony Doerr If you’re feeling lonely or if you’ve ever felt unseen, if you’re emboldened by solitude or secretly longing for it: Welcome to The Lonely Stories. This cathartic collection of essays illuminates an experience that so few of us openly discuss. Some stories are heartbreaking, such as Jesmyn Ward’s reckoning with the loss of her husband and Dina Nayeri’s reflection on immigrating to a foreign country. Others are witty, such as Lev Grossman’s rueful tale of heading to the woods or Anthony Doerr’s struggles with internet addiction. Still others celebrate the clarity of solitude, like Claire Dederer’s journey toward sobriety and Lidia Yuknavitch’s sensual look at desire. Thoughtful and affirming, The Lonely Stories reveals the complexities of an emotion we’ve all felt—reminding us that we're not alone. Contributors include: Megan Giddings Claire Dederer Imani Perry Jeffery Renard Allen Maggie Shipstead Emily Raboteau Lev Grossman Lena Dunham Yiyun Li Anthony Doerr Helena Fitzgerald Maile Meloy Aja Gabel Jean Kwok Amy Shearn Peter Ho Davies Maya Shanbhag Lang Jhumpa Lahiri Jesmyn Ward Lidia Yuknavitch Dina Nayeri Melissa Febos

23 lyrics/ poems written by Jacob Tobias during 1999 whilst being subjected to homophobic bullying at school.

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What is it like to be an isolated old widow, living alone on the bare old-age pension? In the 1960s, the question had become a standard refrain. Originally published in 1966, this was the first full-length study by a sociologist of isolation in old age. Although the majority of old people were in no sense a problem group at the time, a substantial minority of the elderly were ‘alone’ in one or more ways. About 1.3 million people aged sixty-five and over in Britain lived alone; a large number admitted to feeling lonely, at least sometime. About a million were actually socially isolated in terms of low level and frequency of social contact. Mr Tunstall also uses a fourth category of aloneness – namely anomie (as developed by Durkheim, Merton, and Srole). This report uses careful and statistical analysis of the four types of aloneness and of specially affected groups such as the single, the recently widowed, and the housebound. But it also includes details of interviews with ten highly individual old people from suburban Harrow, booming Northampton, industrial revolution Oldham, and rural South Norfolk. The book contains a discussion of the problem of personality in isolation, and a commentary on the inadequacies of social theory about old age. Finally, the concluding chapter suggests a wide variety of policy measures which might help to alleviate social isolation in old age.

Men appear to enjoy many advantages in society-on average they make more money, have more power, and enjoy a greater degree of social freedom than women. But many men pay a high price for the pursuit of success and power. Taking family and friends for granted, men will often let relationships take a back seat to their professional ambitions, only to ultimately find themselves with few real friends they can rely on in hard times. As a result, they turn to affairs, alcohol, and other self-destructive behaviors. Sadly, millions of men suffer untreated depression. In this groundbreaking and provocative book, award-winning clinical psychologist Thomas Joiner makes an impassioned call for society to recognize the harmful effects that solitude can have on men. Drawing on original research done for the National Institute of Mental Health, he focuses on the particular situations that leave men rudderless. He offers advice on support systems that are most useful to men, and he offers prescriptive advice on how men can improve their lives.

An eleven-year-old Navajo boy is taken by force from his Arizona reservation home and bussed to Fort Sill Indian School near Lawton and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1949. The U.S. law requires the Navajo children to attend school in a federally operated boarding school. The boy is treated roughly at his capture and on the bus trip. He vows to escape from the school and walk/run back the eight hundred miles back to his home, realizing he has no money and does not trust the white man. He is forced to rely on his survival skills. He makes several friends at the school. However, in the spring, he leaves at night and starts his journey home. The challenges he faces at the school and also his journey and how he overcomes those challenges are detailed. When he finally reaches his home area, he hears crying from several people and creeps through the sagebrush to see what is happening. The same government agents who seized him are trying to wrestle an eight-year-old girl from her mother and grandmother and put her on the bus. But while that happens, the boy slips unnoticed on to the bus and invites all the children to follow him, and he will hide and protect them until the agents have gone and stopped looking for them. Twenty-one of the children come with him, and he hikes for two days, covering his trails, until he reaches an old unknown cliff dwelling that he and his family had stayed at many times. It is well hidden. For close to a year, the children survive in the cliff dwelling, learning Indian skills from the boy and school skills from a twelve-year-old girl. Meanwhile, a large political battle takes place for many months, and finally, the law is changed so the Navajo children can stay on the reservation to learn the white mans ways and education. When all the papers have been signed by the Congress and the president, the childrens group is able to return home. A large dinner is planned by the tribal council for their return. At this dinner, the boy, Jeff White Cloud, has his name formally changed by the tribal leaders to Nasha Bi Hoga, He Who Walks Alone.

"Within the next two decades, tens of millions of Americans will reach the age where they will need either significant support to stay in their own homes or a cost-effective residential alternative. The current state of elder care in America is appalling, expensive, and unsustainable. It underserves the majority of elderly Americans and bankrupts all but the richest few while virtually ignoring this population's complex physical and mental needs. At a time when we should be celebrating the achievements and wisdom of the oldest citizens, we instead find ways to overmedicate and isolate them in dehumanizing nursing-home facilities. And space for more residents within this system is running out. There must be a better way! In Alone and Invisible No More, physician Dr. Allan S. Teel, MD, describes a philosophy and a course of action that have turned aging in place into a viable alternative for dozens of elderly residents in Damariscotta, Maine. Teel lays out a course of action to expand his approach to the millions of Americans approaching retirement age and how these techniques can be used to avert the financial and personal disaster approaching nationwide. He discusses the resources--both technological and professional--needed to guide this transition and the community support that will be critical to its success. Taking this "Maine Approach" to the rest of the country could create a climate where Americans welcome rather than fear the approach of their golden years"--Provided by publisher.

In Alone in the World? -- first given as the 2004 Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh -- J. Wentzel van Huyssteen develops the interdisciplinary dialogue that he set out in The Shaping of Rationality (1999), applying this methodology to the uncharted waters between theological anthropology and paleoanthropology. Among other things, van Huyssteen argues that scientific notions of human uniqueness help us to ground theological notions of human distinctiveness in flesh-and-blood, embodied experiences and protect us from overly complex theological abstractions regarding the "image of God." Focusing on the interdisciplinary problem of human origins and distinctiveness, van Huyssteen accesses the origins of the embodied human mind through the spectacular prehistoric cave paintings of western Europe, fifteen of which are reproduced in color in this volume. Boldly connecting the widely separated fields of Christian theology and paleoanthropology through careful interdisciplinary reflection, Alone in the World? will encourage sustained investigation into the question of human uniqueness.