Comment
We all need to be part of a community
with Brian Shakes
There’s no doubt about it, community is alive and well out in the community.
We’ve seen it first hand just recently when some 80 people from the Knox area of Melbourne turned out on a bleak winter’s afternoon to show they wanted access to activities and experiences that break down isolation.
What am I talking about? I’m talking about a meeting on June 22 at the Knox Civic Centre, where the inaugural meeting of Over 50s’ new Knox Branch was held.
The impetus for this new branch grew out of one of our Older Driver Issues forums that we ran at the Civic Centre late last year, and since then a small band of locals – together with support from head office here in the city – have set in place the structures and legalities needed to run a semi-autonomous branch.
It was good for us to have affirmed that our structure – centralised access to some specific services for members plus support for them through semi-independent activities branches – still works and works well.
What’s more it was good to realise this structure may serve a new, much more computer-savvy generation of retirees as they come through; after all, the need for direct contact with other humans is not a generational or even age-related thing – it’s part of being human.
I find it interesting that, at the same time as technology seems to be trying to separate us more and more from direct contact with human beings, grass roots activism works to foster opportunities for people to gather. It’s always possible two things are interrelated, of course.
I suspect that for many of the younger folk in our society, a disembodied voice on the phone is just that – part of the accepted process for getting their information needs met. But for us, who grew up with someone ‘attached’ in real time to the voice on the phone – someone who would willingly, and ably, answer our questions – the change to more impersonal means of communications is hard to accept.
So, there’s a real hunger out there for contact, for ‘real’ communication, for a breaking down of isolation and for developing new friendship groups and outlets where the grey matter can be stimulated.
One man who knows a great deal about such things – both personally and as a counsellor – is Professor Dennis Lowther, who was guest speaker at the Branch launch. He stimulated the audience into a genuine contemplation of that age-old question: "What am I going to do with the rest of my life?"
Professor Lowther was forced into retirement initially the day he turned 65 – and, having answered the question himself – he set about developing a new career as a psychologist post his first retirement. His second retirement is nowhere in sight, nor, he says, will it be, while he can use his brain and his abilities to help others.
So, I guess I came away from the meeting feeling quite uplifted for a variety of reasons. I recognise I am fortunate to be able to use this space to share these reflections, and I want to beg those of you out there who are feeling lonely and isolated to take the initiative – reach out and make some human connections wherever in your community you can. That first step in the process will be the hardest; I can just about guarantee it.
• Brian Shakes is Chief Executive Officer, Over 50s Association.
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