Psychology says the reason retired men sit in silence isn't because they have nothing to say — it's because they've lost the only identity anyone ever valued them for

Psychology says the reason retired men sit in silence isn't because they have nothing to say — it's because they've lost the only identity anyone ever valued them for

You’ve seen him. Probably in your own family. He’s sixty-seven, maybe seventy. He retired a couple of years ago. He sits in his armchair in the afternoons with the TV on low, watching something he isn’t really watching. He gets up, makes a cup of tea, sits back down. He’s not unhappy, exactly. He just isn’t anything in particular. His wife will tell you he’s quieter than he used to be. When the grandchildren visit, he smiles and nods and doesn’t…