The silence of men in general is overtalked aboutandovercriticized. To be sure, men never open up as much as womenwantthem to, but there is a wordless understanding in which we nfairlywell especially in friendships.

I believe, in fact, that most women would prefer a man tobegloomily uncommunicative than to spill his guts at the drop ofahat.

The push for men to express their feelings presumes that wehavefeelings, and we do have a few, but they remain submerged, andtheairing of them often violates their authenticity.

I am no biologist, but my guess is that the male human animalwasprogrammed for silence. I would go so far as to argue that menwereprogrammed to be isolated from one another and that alonenessisour natural state. Silence in male friendships is our way ofbeingalone with each other.

Once men have established a friendship that itself is theword.The affection is obvious, at least to us. A main component ofoursilence is an appreciation of the affection.

男人的沉默往往被過多地談論且過分指責了。可以肯定的是，男人從未像女人所希望的那樣開誠布公地說出自己的心里話，但無言的理解，在男人當中卻很管用，尤其在維持友誼的時候。

我相信事實上大多數女人都寧愿男人郁郁寡歡不言不語，而不喜歡男人就像竹筒倒豆子，什么都說。

都說男人應該把情感表達出來，這說明我們并非沒有感情的動物。不錯，我們確實有一些，但隱而不露，若要表達出來就變味兒了。

我不是生物學家，但我猜想男人這種動物天生就是沉默寡言的。我甚至認為男人天生就是彼此孤立的，孤獨是我們的自然狀態。即使成了朋友，也是無聲的友誼，這使得我們能彼此獨立地活著。

一旦男人間建立起友誼，友誼本身就已說明了一切。至少對我們來說，情感是明顯的。我們的沉默，主要就是來自于對這份情感的欣賞。