Wednesdays have proven to be a crazy day for me (please excuse the late post)… especially because with my new IRB position, we often have meetings Wednesdays.
Anyway, a male boss/mentor of mine recently shared with me when we were talking about our profession (counseling) that men often feel like they can open up more to women in counseling because men don’t really have “deep” conversations with other men. This really saddened me … I don’t know if it’s true, it’s just his anecdotal experience perhaps, but all the same it stuck with me. I don’t understand how people can feel fulfilled or have meaningful connections if they only talk about surface level stuff. It may also be because I have “deep” conversations with people for a living, but even before I was a professional in the mental health field I always felt starved for good conversation if I didn’t have a “deeper” level conversation for a while. I suppose men are indeed socialized to not necessarily acknowledge their inner world/feelings to other men for fear of being thought weak.
The whole conversation just made me realize how I really don’t have much insight into the world of men… lol. Despite having most of my close friends being males, I really don’t understand what it’s like in some ways.
Is it possible for people to feel fulfilled without intimate conversations? Do they just not know what they’re missing? I don’t know.
Eternal Ocean of Words 