Andrew McCarthy

No.

Particularly older men would say, no, I don't get lonely.

And which I know, and they would always snap it very quick.

And I knew whenever I answer that quick and that fast and that sharp, that I'm either lying or I'm afraid.

Because to men particularly, loneliness can be tied in somehow to some kind of weakness.

And weakness is the one thing a man can never present as.

You know what I mean?

So people then just get further walled into this loneliness because they can't allow themselves to be seen in that way.

And if we can't allow ourselves to be seen, we are going to put up a wall and then that's going to isolate us further.

And so you just withdraw and pull back and then it becomes a self-perpetuating thing.

And I encountered a lot of that as I went along.

Well, it was my son.

My son – I was sitting at the kitchen table.

He was telling me a funny story about one of his buds and we were laughing and then we settled down.

He just looked up at me and said, you don't really have any friends, do you, dad?

That's the way kids do.

I took that hit and then I said, yes, Sammy, I have friends.

I just don't see them, but I know they're there and that's enough.

He went, yeah, okay, whatever.

He went off and that stayed with me for several days.