Are midlife people interested in platonic friendship at all?

[MidlifeBookworm]

I’m just wondering if midlife people are interested in having platonic friends, and value them, or if society sees them only as a stopgap to be dropped as soon as a partner is found?

I am nearly 50 and wouldn’t make a conventionally attractive candidate as a romantic partner – for example I’m quite overweight and also not working due to disability. However I have some of the good qualities you might look out for in a platonic friend to meet up with occasionally for coffee and a chat or have as a companion to go to an arthouse film. Things like being a good listener, fairly articulate and educated, and probably as important as anything I have the free time to meet up and not flake out whereas a lot of my peers are busy with family and kids etc.

My question is, how would I go about finding a platonic friend just to talk to, rather than a romantic partner? Could this just lead to disappointment in the long term as the friendships would end when/if the other person started dating, not by my choice but by theirs? I know the standard answer for any loneliness question is to try Meetup but I have had mixed results with that and I’d like to try other options too.

Thanks in advance for any opinions!

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