Reach out and touch someone
Personal touch never goes out of style and may be our soul’s way to “save” us from ourselves.
Sticky Fingers Don’t Leave Prints
It’s terrible having sticky fingers. No, not the kind that pull what doesn’t belong to you off the department store shelves. I’m no thief. I don’t steal stuff. I feel stuff. Everything I touch has a sense, a texture, a tone, a pinch, a puff, a cuddle, a rebuff. It’s slippery or slimy, it’s sticky […]
Burqa Baby
The woman sitting near me is a mother. I know because she is carrying a child with beautiful dark eyes. The eyes are all I can see. Tiny hands wrap around mother’s waist. Tiny toes spread as far as they can, brushing against each other in their suspension. This gaze somehow haunts me. Burqa baby’s […]
The Lost Art of Touch
I woke to the sound of whimpering turned to whining and then a generalized commotion. Silver, my decrepit and dementia -laden husky, had wandered in the wee hours and found himself trapped behind a chair. He was flailing, unsuccessfully, to free himself. Upon seeing his predicament, I turned on the light, so he could see I […]
Can you hear me now?
When someone has noise in their ears, you have to touch them to get their attention. A woman is sitting on the two-seater sofa at Starbucks. We, a group of three with coffees in hand, prepare to sit down. There are two free seats, plus the seat on the sofa next to the woman. She […]
Navigation by Feel
At MIT they’re experimenting with touch. That is, GPS guidance for your driving experience by vibration through sensors attached to your skin. Skip the visual and auditory distractions, a tickle tells you to turn right or left. That’s cool! And, they suggest, a possible option for the vision or hearing-impaired. Touch sensation is an unsung hero […]