Touch

Last night Max told me that he read a study which indicated that human beings need to be hugged 12 times a day.  I don't remember all the details, just that it's good for your emotional well-being.  "Even a side hug," he proclaimed, "will do the trick."  And he proceeded to side hug me to prove the point.  In grad school I once claimed that I hated side hugs, and at the time I think I did, but they don't annoy me anymore.  I realized his side hug was my first hug of the day, and actually, I'm pretty positive my first hug since the day I got back from my holiday.  So we're supposed to average 12 hugs a day for emotional well-being, and I hadn't been hugged since January 19.  Hmmm.

It's interesting that human beings need so much affection.

'Abdu'l-Baha says that love is the secret of this divine cycle.  Baha'u'llah says we were created because of love.   

We were created because of love and to love.

I don't think any of us will ever really fully understand what this means.  What it means for love to be the force that binds the atoms together, for love to be the primal purpose of creation, for love to be the reason we are.   What it means to love each other purely and for each other's sakes, not for our own.  (In other words, to love without self interest.)

But affection, it's a small physical expression of love, and I guess we all do need it.   There's that study about babies who wither away and die if they're not held for a certain amount of time every day.  How can science really explain that?

I don't know...sometimes I'm just awed at what tender creatures we're supposed to be...There's a lot of love in this world...and a lot of starving souls...

Welp, don't know where I'm going with all this, BUT, I might just be blazing a new hugging campaign, so...watch out!