Desperately Coping with Loneliness

I saw a video about this guy, Jeff Ragsdale, who in the height of the breakup-related depression, just posted flyers around Manhattan asking people to call him. He was so lonely and on the brink that he just printed a bunch of posters with his phone number and put them up across the city, hoping someone would reach out to him. Well, someone did not reach out to him - MANY people reached out to him and soon his desperate plea for companionship went viral and became a global show of solidarity. As he says in the video, a city like New York, even with all the hustle and bustle, can be a lonely place and having lived across the pond myself, I know big cities, even with all the stuff going on around you, can really feel like a lonely and empty place. I think many people managed to relate to his poster.

Now while I am not sure whether I would post a flyer around the place inviting the unwashed masses to call me, you can certainly understand the need for an ear, a comforting word, when one feels like the last and only person in the middle of a busy metropolis. And it speaks to the basic human need for companionship and solidarity.

In this case, this guy, who apparently has suffered with depression and other related issues all his life, found a lot of comfort in the voices of strangers, many of whom called from outside the United States. I am sure he is not sad and depressed today, as he has just launched a book based on these calls and the various experiences people shared with him - some consoling him, others looking to be consoled.

This entire story just highlights a couple things - people are still amazing, even as the world news, on a daily, even hourly basis, paints humanity as money-grubbing, selfish cretins; and secondly, you can make money from just about anything in the US of A. Even from a book about phone calls.

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