Communication

How important is communication in any relationship? If one person tells all and the other tells nothing, how do you make it work? It seems, in looking at most of my friends and their relationships, the same thing kept coming up. The women talk, the men don’t. I wonder why that is and how you can have a healthy relationship when its one sided? Most women want men to open up, listen, and voice what they are feeling. They are not asking for answers or for them to fix all their woe’s, per say, but to definitely have input. Men, however, have a hard time doing this. Are they afraid of confrontation? Is it because they don’t want to appear vulnerable? Maybe they really don’t care, I don’t know, I am not a man. They say men are from Mars, and women from Venus. So how do you come to a happy medium where everyone feels satisfied both mentally, physically, and emotionally? They say one person usually gives more than the other. I am not sure if that is commitment to the relationship, emotions, or financially. I guess it can be all, one reason, or none of the above. There are people out there that have been married longer than the norm these days. How do they do it? It seems as though there is no such thing as “until death do us part” anymore. I believe that each relationship starts with a foundation and that’s built on trust and communication. You build from the ground up and hope that in the end, what you’ve built is sturdy enough to withstand the storms. Considering the longest relationship I’ve had was 8 years, I’m definitely not the expert on lasting relationships. So, what is the secret (if there is one) and how come no one is sharing it with the women?