A few months ago a young Bowdoin friend came rushing up to me at Hannaford and said, “David, you have to talk to your species!” Apparently she had been stood up by a guy the previous day. The encounter got me to thinking about the innate differences between boys and girls and, later, men and women.

When I told my dear wife Tina that I planned to write a column on the topic, she said, “What? You don’t have a clue!” Her pithy point led to the first item on my list of differences.

But first a caveat: These are my thoughts, based upon my experience, not scientific studies. Yes, exceptions abound. Feel free to disagree. Make your own list. And have fun doing it.

Next, my frame of reference. I have two sons and two stepsons; four daughters in-law; and eight grandchildren (five female, three male). Over the past 13 years, Tina and I have been “host parents’” to nine Bowdoin students (five female, four male).

Okay, on to the list:

(l) Sometimes boys/men are clueless about family dynamics — and many other aspects of living, such as what clothes to wear or how to use a toothbrush or whether to use a comb. Compare the behavior, for example, of boys versus girls at a big gathering of relatives. The girls are curious about who belongs to whom. The boys? They’re most concerned about who got the highest score on a video game.

(2) Girls (and women) pay greater attention to the nuances of male-female relationships. For girls, every statement by each person has a big meaning. For boys? Nah. There’s a telling scene in the TV show Friends after one of the men kisses one of the women of the group during a date. The women on the show later want to know everything about the kiss — what led up to it, what he said, what she said, how it felt, and so forth and so on. As for the guys? Between sips of beer and bites of pizza, one guy simply asked, “Did you slip her the tongue?”

(3) Girls (and women) hold grudges longer than boys (or men). A female college student said to me, “I prefer my guy friends; there’s less drama.” I’ll say no more about this topic for the sake of self preservation.

(4) Boys/men have greater physical strength. Think weight lifters. Girls have higher thresholds for pain. Think childbirth. As to mental strength? Girls/women have had to possess greater mental strength to endure the restrictions men in many societies have placed upon them.

(5) Boys/men have a greater drive to win, thereby proving “manhood.” The UNC women’s soccer coach says that if a woman is mad at a teammate, she won’t pass the ball to her. Men, on the other hand, will put personal animosities aside and pass the ball in order to win.

(6) Girls/women have a greater desire to keep the peace. The world would have fewer wars if more women were in charge, no doubt about it.

Today, happily, young men and women can be good friends with members of the opposite sex with no strings attached. People of my era used to think that if a man and a woman got together for coffee, say, something must be going on. Tina and I are exceptions. At parties, she’ll gravitate towards the men; I’ll go for the women. (Note: Tina laughs that as a teen she always wanted to go to Bowdoin, which was then all-male, because she liked boys and there were lots of boys there.)

Enough. I guess the point is to accept — even embrace — the differences between men and women. Life’s too short to ignore half the human race. Vive la difference!