A few months ago, while I was editing the Khmer Tour, I stumbled upon a short video taped on November 19, 2023 that I had never published. It was, as can be seen in the thumbnail, a Christmassy scene in Phnom Penh. So I scheduled the video to be automatically published this morning on the Network’s Telegram page.
This morning, as the clip went up, it reminded me to pick up the phone and call Saran – a Khmer man whom I’ve grown fond of due to his ability to distill the clusterfuck that is Cambodian politics in under 4 sentences (and routinely in under two) no matter how complicated the topic.
Like many men around the world, Saran is lonely. He’s not poor, he’s not depressed, he’s not ill – but quite lonely. His children have left the home a while ago and he’s neither rich nor old enough to afford to retire, while his wife manages a small clothing operation. I certainly made his day by calling him.
We sometimes talk about a loneliness crisis among men (although it’s a misnomer and it’s a bit more complicated than that), but one thing we can and should do is talk to each other. Long before any discussion on systemic issues, the improvement can, and must, come from each and every one of us.
On International Men’s Day, this is the good word from the Sofa: Pick up the phone and call a friend. Find time to meet. Grab a coffee/beer/whatever and chat. Stop making excuses! You do have the time. The world will continue to spin if you stop working for several hours, trust me on that.
And once you’re done, make it a point to repeat the process at least monthly, if not weekly. You stop being part of the statistics if you do something about it. Nobody is coming to save us if we don’t first try.
That’s it.
