I am sitting by the swimming pool at the Canyon Ranch resort in Tucson, Arizona, only it is not really a resort, it is a fitness\/wellness\/life-enhancing centre where people who are very stressed come to detox and, as I am discovering, \u201cfind\u201d\u009d themselves. But this resort is not brimming with stressed-out women, worn thin and ragged by juggling motherhood, wifedom and being the heads of companies. No. The classes here are full of men \u201d\u201c men with great big identity issues.<\/p>\n
There is 45-year-old Lee, who has just \u201cgotten divorced\u201d\u009d and has, in the course of a month, slept with 15 women. \u201cI don\u2019t see myself as that type of man,\u201d\u009d he says, \u201cbut I feel so lonely and I don\u2019t know what to do with my life.\u201d\u009d There is Ryan, aged 53, who has never married and is in crisis about why he hasn\u2019t. Then there is Steve, 49, a travel agent, long-time married, who has hit a midlife crisis. He says he really does want to buy a Harley-Davidson and head off down Route 66. \u201cIs that wrong?\u201d\u009d he asks. \u201cI just don\u2019t know what I want in my life anymore.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
They are all part of a \u201csandwich generation\u201d\u009d: they sit between the baby boomers and the digital natives. And they are a group who have, according to recent statistics, lost their way.<\/p>\n