To meld into an embrace, hugging so tightly that your breathing relaxes, your muscles release, and you exchange meaning: love, appreciation, sorrow, joy.
It is this closeness that is being missed.
To join in rhythm to the music, dancing in sync, courting – pheromones and maybe love.
It is this closeness that is being lost.
Shoulders to lean into
Hands to hold
Fingers to knead
Lips to kiss
To initiate a caress, to invite touch, to chase and kick and dunk and spike and swim and commingle and…
It is this closeness that is being tamped.
As you…so me.
Will we ever be close again?
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I have noticed with silent alarm how rare it’s become to see public displays of affection. They began to dwindle after the devices appeared. And now, with the necessary protocols of the pandemic, the sighting of people showing affection is becoming a relic of the past. Some humans may never get to experience the bounty of human physical expression that we took so for granted that many of us avoided it or thought we could live well without it.
What of our young ones? Can they expect what they have not witnessed? Will they know what they are missing? What will their courtship rituals be? Will they hug or kiss? How terrible it would be if physical expression were to be so restricted and conflicted that we would lose being able to connect with each other through the magic and meaning of touch.
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