“One caller after the next echoed the man’s emotion [of loneliness],” they wrote in Response magazine. “If only for a few minutes, faceless people phoned in to share the experience of being alone. It is only in the context of connection with others that our deepest needs can be met. Whether we like it or not, each of us has an unshakable dependence on others.” Emma Seppala, writing in Psychology Today, notes that we all have a longing to belong: “Our greatest need—after food and shelter—is social connection,” she says. “From birth through old age, we need to feel that we belong. Yet we can easily become isolated from each other. Some of us get trapped in 12-hour work days or scatter across the country in the quest for achievement. We drown in workaholism and the busyness of life, then numb ourselves with alcohol and Netflix. Yet social connection is what we all desperately want—that sense of deep and powerful intimacy, whether with a romantic partner or a friend.” In her book The Happiness Track, Seppala quotes researcher Brene Brown: “A deep sense of love and belonging is an irresistible need of all peo- ple. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don’t function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others. We get sick.” Lonely at Work Y ou might think that if we have a problem with loneliness, the church and other organizations need to get busy and do something about it. Well, they are in some cases. But society in general has taken note of the epidemic and called for help because of its far-reaching repercussions. Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, the previous Surgeon General of the United States, recently warned in the Harvard Business Review, “Loneli- ness reduces task performance, limits creativity, and impairs other aspects of executive function, such as reasoning and decision-making. For our health and our work, it is imperative that we address the loneliness epidemic quickly.” Harvard Business Review began researching the topic several years ago because of concerns about 10 WWW.AGRM.ORG MAY/JUNE 2018 We drown in workaholism and the busyness of life, then numb ourselves with alcohol and Netflix. Yet social connection is what we all desperately want—that sense of deep and powerful intimacy, whether with a romantic partner or a friend.