Touch is one of the most intimate and emotional interactions that may occur between individuals. It is warm, intimate, romantic and meaningful. Touch physically breaks that isolated individuality and creates a connection. With that connection, so much art, progress and love has been created and spread. Touch is an important cohesive keystone within civilization.
When people greet, they may hug. Business deals and meetings of importance typically begin with a handshake. Lovers embrace, hold hands, kiss and have sex. All of these interactions are tied to people making physical contact with each other. Touch is also seen as sacred and not always easily shared between individuals. We can literally see in the Sistine Chapel as Adam and God reach to contact each other how important touch is. This veneration is why we don’t just see people going up to each other to hold hands or kiss casually. Contact like this is tied to pre-existing trust and it’s extremely important to all, no matter how causal they are. It is the reason why there is such a lengthy process before people can even kiss each other. Various degrees of touch needs increasing levels of trust for it to be shared.
While we are talking about these beautiful interactions, touch may also carry a darker quality. Frustration that builds up over time and finally explodes may result in a physical altercation. Touch isn’t always something that brings warmth and joy to people. Touch that happens against our will is the darkest form, whether it be from a fight or sexual coercion. It can actually be such a painful experience that people never recover from it. It can leave permanent scars on the body and the soul. This takes away the pure quality that touch has and makes it much more neutral and human. Touch is neither good nor evil, much like humanity. It is capable of being so warm and gentle and yet so violent and abrasive.
However, humanity is dependent on touch. It is why we gain so much joy from petting an animal or why we seek emotional relationships filled with intimate physicality. Touch is so beautiful and necessary that we are always seeking it. A human that lives without that contact typically isn’t at their happiest point. We are born into the world physically connected to our mothers and when we are born, we are placed on their chest so immediately we may bond. We then survived from that touch as we grew up being fed by it. That same presence, through the touch of our parents, helped us grow, encouraged us and even gave us discipline to form into the people we are today.
Touch is what allows us to survive, to love and to find solace. For many, the reassurance of even a simple hug can help them get past obstacles and daily stress. The same hug can also be a way to reconcile our differences and a handshake may end even a war.
To end, I think touch is really powerful and beautiful.
