Focusing On Friends

This is a short story from the mind of Steve Tesich, one specifically about men and women, how they are different in friendships, and how they are more than that the same. Tesich starts the story comparing his friendships to cinema, and more importantly how the ones between him and men are "shot" differently than the ones between him and women. He says that for women, the camera work is done very much up close, whereas for men, it is shot from a further view. By this he means that with women it's all so personal, and a lot of the memories he seems to remember of his female friends is all talk, not action. This contrasts greatly from the memories of his male friends, of which he also specifically lists a few names, Slobo, Louie, and Sam, in how they mainly portray the background and the setting and actions better than intricate interactions. His female friendships were all about love, and expressing the words "I love you" freely, but too freely, to the point where, as Tesich describes it, "the emotion was nailed down". This means he would say it almost too much, therefore tearing apart it's meaning, leaving him with empty words when he would say the phrase "I love you". When he talks about the men, however, it has to do with him never saying it enough, like he couldn't almost, as if he had an emotional and mental block stopping him, not because he was scared to say it, but because he could just never express it right. He makes it a point in the end of the story that he will change his ways, and make each friendship more like the other, while striving to find a middle ground.