Yes, Marty, thanks very much.
Men communicate differently from women and men communicate differently when they are virtually alone instead of within a group of mixed people. Quite often, a man starts his communication with his arms across his chest, protecting himself.
What Men's Sheds offers is an open area where people can come and get to learn and to know each other. Why would they be doing this?
Well, these are comfort birds, by the way, and they're given to palliative care patients. They fit beautifully in your hand. One of our men made 150 of them and donated them to a person working with people in palliative care.
If you give a man something to do, whether it's a bigger project or a small project, he'll sit there and do his work and start looking at the man beside him or on the other side and watching what they're doing. Then, believe it or not, they open up. Who are you? What did you do? What is your family? How are you feeling? What are you doing?
I can relate very personal stories about how doing things together shoulder to shoulder—and not in a plan, project or program that is dedicated to them but in an open-ended kind of thing—gives men an opportunity to sit back, relax and start to communicate.
That's one of the questions or problems. People say, “Men don't communicate.” Yes, they do, under the proper circumstances.