I am most pleased to announce that my new book on Men and Aging, tentatively titled Every Breath, New Chances: A Guide to Aging for Men will be published in 2020 by North Atlantic Books.  This book follows on my award-winning title Aging as a Spiritual Practice: A Contemplative Guide to Growing Older and Wiser, published six years ago.  That book was a first-of-genre approach to aging from a spiritual perspective, drawing on my many years as a Buddhist meditation teacher.  In researching Aging as a Spiritual Practice, I discovered that men and women tend to experience aging differently, and face different sets of issues and challenges.  One important difference is that men are less likely to talk about their aging concerns.  I began to conceive of a book about aging especially for men, that addressed their concerns about power and virility, emotions, and communication.  And when I began searching for other titles about men and aging, I found very little.  I’m expecting that my new book will be another “first-of-genre,” a work that breaks new ground and offers tangible help and guidance for men in their fifties, sixties, seventies, and older who are harboring private thoughts and concerns about growing older with no safe and comfortable forum to share them.

Although Every Breath, New Chances  will draw upon my Buddhist experience and world view, and will include some contemplative practices, it will offer a less explicitly Buddhist approach.  I want to be able to reach and touch all men regardless of their beliefs or spiritual background, and include men of various ethnicities, socio-economic strata, sexual orientation, and world view.  The heart of the book will take shape from one-on-one interviews and group discussions, and I’m hoping that many of these interactions can be accomplished on-line, using conferencing software and other tools.

The book will also draw on women’s experiences of their husbands and partners, and I hope to interview women about their issues and concerns about the men they love.  These women often know more about what is going on with their men than the men themselves do.  There will be also a chapter for gay men, whose issues and concerns about aging are different in some important respects from straight men.

I’m hoping that this blog will itself be an important research tool in hearing directly from you about your perspectives and concerns.  I welcome your comments! I hope to post a blog every couple of weeks on the various topics and issues the book will be addressing, and keep all of you up to date on my progress.

Thank you for your participation and interest! Let me hear from you soon.