08/19/2020
🖐🖐🏻🖐🏼🖐🏽🖐🏾🖐🏿 touch
Of all the mournful impacts that the pandemic has had on us, one of the most devastating is that it has diminished our opportunities to touch and be touched by other humans. Many are now starved of the routine, regular contact we had previously taken for granted.
"The more we learn about touch, the more we realize just how central it is in all aspects of our lives — cognitive, emotional, developmental, behavioral — from womb into old age. It's no surprise that a single touch can affect us in multiple, powerful ways."
— Maria Konnikova in "The Power of Touch"
"Everything we touch becomes a jewel for our enjoyment. We do not have to possess them, because every jewel is available for our delight. Everyone and everything here is a jewel."
— Thich Nhat Hahn in Cultivating the Mind of Love
"Of all the gifts we can give to people, the gift of our touch is one of the most priceless. Through our hands we convey a kind of radiance. A warmth seeps out from our inner fire, a wrap for someone's chill, a light for another's dark."
— Jan Phillips in Divining the Body
"A pat on the back, a caress of the arm — these everyday, incidental gestures that we usually take for granted, thanks to our amazingly dexterous hands. But after years spent immersed in the science of touch, I can tell you that they are far more profound than we usually realize: They are our primary language of compassion, and a primary means for spreading compassion."
— Dacher Keltner in "Hands on Research: The Science of Touch"
"Paradise is attained by touch."
— Helen Keller in Divining the Body by Jan Phillips
"Although not everyone is blessed with a healing touch, our touch can be a source of healing and blessing for others, especially when accompanied by a brief prayer."
— Tom Cowan in The Way of Saints
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"Touch is far more essential than our other senses. … It's ten times stronger than verbal or emotional contact."
— Saul Schanberg in A Natural History of the Senses
"Touch deprivation is a reality in American culture as a whole. … It's not just babies needing to be touched in caring ways or the sick. It's not just doctors and nurses needing to extend it. It's all of us, needing connection, needing to receive it, needing to give it, with genuine happiness at stake."
— Rev Anthony David in "The Power of Touch" by Nora Brunner
"Touch is not optional for human development. From tool use to chronic pain to the process of healing, the genes, cells, and neural circuits involved in the sense of touch have been crucial to creating our unique human experience."
— David J. Linden in Touch
