15,000 people stood in line in New York to hug a woman said to have hugged 27 million people. The hugging saint from India. How sad. How sad that so many people felt the need of contact so strong that they would stand in line for hours to be hugged. By someone they don't know. A stranger from a strange land. A stranger filled with love who would acknowledge their need and offer an unconditional hug. No issues. No doubts. Possibly a stand in for someone they have been missing. Someone gone who used to hug them. Someone they wished would hug them. Someone who would accept them as they are. No restrictions. No qualifications. No judgments. Just a simple act of physical touching that let them know they are loved and accepted. A chink in the loneliness of their lives.
Of course not all are needy. There are those among us who stand forth to return the hug, recharge the battery, reply in love, acknowledge the touch that means so much. They also enfold the needy in their arms. One at a time, qualified as to those who will accept a hug, aware of the restrictions local society places. How sad. Our society has to restrict physical actions that should be full of love but can become twisted. We become afraid to interact with one another, hesitant to offer pure love unfiltered by physical desires, because so much of society promotes these physical desires, intertwining them with selling things or attracting others so we won't be lonely and we'll live the good live, blah, blah, blah. A simple hug degrades into a psychological tug of war called Should I? Should I? Is it right or is it wrong? Will the hug be accepted in love, or will it be tainted by fear, rejected and misjudged? Will past events tint the offer? Has a lifetime of no touch poisoned the ability to respond?
Maybe we need a hugging saint. A person above reproach to respond to our unasked plea for human contact. Maybe we need to look around and see if we could help this saint out. Maybe form the first order of the church of huggers. Instead of the sign of the cross, make the sign of the open arms and welcome those around us in need. Just another crazy thought I guess. 15,000 people standing in line for a hug. Why not save time and just hug each other?
Of course not all are needy. There are those among us who stand forth to return the hug, recharge the battery, reply in love, acknowledge the touch that means so much. They also enfold the needy in their arms. One at a time, qualified as to those who will accept a hug, aware of the restrictions local society places. How sad. Our society has to restrict physical actions that should be full of love but can become twisted. We become afraid to interact with one another, hesitant to offer pure love unfiltered by physical desires, because so much of society promotes these physical desires, intertwining them with selling things or attracting others so we won't be lonely and we'll live the good live, blah, blah, blah. A simple hug degrades into a psychological tug of war called Should I? Should I? Is it right or is it wrong? Will the hug be accepted in love, or will it be tainted by fear, rejected and misjudged? Will past events tint the offer? Has a lifetime of no touch poisoned the ability to respond?
Maybe we need a hugging saint. A person above reproach to respond to our unasked plea for human contact. Maybe we need to look around and see if we could help this saint out. Maybe form the first order of the church of huggers. Instead of the sign of the cross, make the sign of the open arms and welcome those around us in need. Just another crazy thought I guess. 15,000 people standing in line for a hug. Why not save time and just hug each other?
Hugging The World, One Person At a Time
