Join the club
When we were younger, the most exclusive clubs were formed on the playground or after school. Being a club member gave you a link to a group -- you belonged. As adults, clubs are still a huge part of our social life, albeit not in a make-or-break kind of way. Dinner of the month clubs -- where friends gather for meals on a house-rotating schedule -- and book clubs provide an easy excuse to get together on an ongoing basis. Stephen, 56, joined a pre-existing men's book club formed by some envious husbands. "My understanding is that a number of them were married to women in a book club and decided, well, if it was good for them, it would be good for the boys, too," he says. "Although we all spend a good deal of time talking about the book du jour -- whether we've finished it or not, whether we liked it or not -- the real business of the evening is just enjoying one another's company." The ‘purpose' of forming a club is not the book, or the dinner, but rather having a set get-together date.
The benefits of spending time with your friends are endlessly varied, depending on each individual's needs, but no matter what you do or who you do it with, most of us would agree that having a buddy is well worth an extra check on the to-do list. So make a regular date and mark it on your calendar. It's so much more fun to put a check beside 'date with friend' than 'spring-clean closets'.
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