We were lied to. We do need others.
As men we were told to man up, to go it alone. As we enter the end of childhood, we are trained not to feel, express, or need. We go from having close friends we share all with to having buds we compete with. Then we lose them.
If we allow any need for connection, we find it with our partners.
That is not enough. We suffer quietly often not knowing we are suffering as those close to us suffer because we can’t connect with them.
Our partner may beat on our chest, pegging to feel us. The best we can do is give her an intellectual explanation why we care.
Left alone, we will never develop the skill we were never shown—how to connect as a man.