Why Do Boys Love Each Other Loudly, But Men Do It In Code?

My son has a best friend forever. They were born in the same hospital, only four hours apart. His mother and I didn’t know each other back then, but when I first met her, she looked at me and said, smiling, “Ah! It’s you! We go to the same butcher.”

She is Italian. I am Spanish. And the poor butcher had spent months confusing us—asking her for her/my mum (who, when she visited, would request very specific cuts of meat for very specific Spanish stews). I love it when friendships are meant to be. This one was.

I love watching my kid and hers grow up together. It gives me so much insight into what boys’ friendships could and should be. But it also breaks my heart to think how many men no longer have those connections (I like to believe they were once allowed to). Even more heartbreaking? The idea that Eric and Owen’s friendship—this pure, joyful thing that started with them half-arsed lifted to the sun in baby yoga—might one day shrink into something more stereotypical and shallow.

Sometime…