Human Touch definitely ranks as one of Bruce Springsteen's best songs.  Actually, the entire Human Touch album touched me.  But, besides Bruce's longing for some skin, touching has lots of loaded implications.  In Asia, it'd be insulting to touch an older person on the head, back or shoulders, even to comfort them.  If you're in the Middle East, you'd be rude to not hold your friends hand (same gender unless you want to be arrested) while walking down the street.  Mediterranean cultures are also very touchy. A hug and cheek kiss among people of the same gender are more common than handshakes.

We're all born with a great need for touch. To thrive, newborns must be fed touch as much as food. Studies tell us that infants deprived of skin contact lose weight, become ill and even die. We know that premature babies given periods of touch therapy gain weight faster, cry less, and show more signs of relaxed pulse, respiration rate and muscle tension.     

So, what happened as we grew up.  As adults we receive and give less and less touch.  Maybe we fear it may appear as a sexual or come-on gesture.  Like 7 year old boys and girls, some adult germaphobes don't want to get "cooties".  Maybe it seems too touchy-feely and you've adopted the vice-grip handshake instead.  If you're a guy in our homophobic society (well, not here on the coasts) you'd better watch how you're giving that hug to your same-gender friend, lest you be thought of as gay, not that there's anything wrong with that.   

Many of us grew up in families that did not touch each other and it may feel damn uncomfortable to touch or be touched.  Conversely, in certain circles it would be considered cold to not hug with chests (hearts) touching and remain there for many several seconds.  This I find a bit uncomfortable, but once you're been brought in on a chest-to-chest, it's tricky to find the right amount of time before you "unlock".  Have you received (or given) a hug that involved a bend at the waist, body turned away from the other person and half an arm around them?  Everyone's got their comfort levels.  Want to freak someone out?  When they come in for the half hug, give them the full body, heart-to-heart, two hands on the back treatment.  Throw in a kiss on both cheeks while you're at it. 

Could it be true that when librarians were instructed alternately to touch and not touch the hands of students as they handed back their library cards that those who had been touched reported far greater positive feelings about themselves, the library, and the librarians than those who had not been touched?   Really?  This occurred even though the touch was fleeting and the students didn't even remember it!  

One of my favorite online and print magazine, The Greater Good, has reported on some interesting research on the conveyance of emotion through touch.  Blindfolded subjects could identify love, gratitude, and sympathy through the touch of a partner.  Not only could they identify these emotions, they could distinguish between them.   Identification of emotion through touching beat studies of facial and vocal communication. By varying the intensity, speed, location, and duration of their touches, it seems, the participants were able to convey the subtle differences between these positive emotions.  Read more about this interesting work here. 

In this season of giving sandwiched between Thanksgiving and Christmasgiving, consider offering what cannot be bought--just a little of that human touch.  It can be as simple as a brush on the shoulder or a full-on bear hug.  It can be a gesture of friendship or comfort for a stranger or a lover.  Do it more often.  You don't need a reason.