Vacuosity

Reach out and touch someone

I've been thinking about the importance of human contact.

We have a book, a baby shower gift given to us by Darryl, about baby massage. It goes into the importance of touching your baby, the feeling of skin on skin, and how it establishes a bond between you and your child. This sets a precedent of physical intimacy for the rest of his or her life.

In childhood we are touched more than at any other time of life. As we grow, and learn to do things for ourselves, the need for so much contact decreases. It's a shame that we take it for granted and let it slip away. Physical contact is indicative of so many things.

So much is communicated unspoken in a touch, just through the weight of it, by the part of the body, and the length of the touch. Is it the genuineness of a heavy and full palm? Is it the alluring trace of a delicate finger? Maybe the telling hug that lingers just a second too long?

It's funny, too, to see how people touch themselves when they really want to touch someone else.

I think about getting old, how the opportunities for human contact dwindle away with the years. How sad it would be to have no one, no chance to touch, especially at a time when one is most vunerable. Why do we, the young, shy away from touching someone old?

It makes me happy that my children are comfortable with physical intimacy. While it exists there is security, closeness and little chance for violence. I sometimes wonder if parents who beat their children, or children who hit others, do so for the contact, just for the sake of touching someone, even if it is in anger.

If I can give any advice (not that I'm in a position to give it) I would say try hard to make honest and genuine physical contact with the people in your life. The less a person gets that contact, the more they need it.

posted by David @ 11:27 p.m.