The power of human touch..or not.

Look at all these words I write! How many flippant and useless things come out of my mouth. To look at book with all my wasted words would make me so sad.

There exists a connection between quality and quantity. One always affects the other. If you're playing a musical instrument the more you practice (quantity), the better you get (quality). The more friends you have (quantity), then logically (because there isn't enough time in the world or room in the human brain to know each thoroughly) you will have friends of a lower quality. Have you ever had to type a word over and over and over and over, so much so that it loses its original meaning and starts to look like a nonsensical jumble of letters? A link between the quantity of your words and the quality of them is part of a delicate balance of communication. The less a person says or does, the more each word or touch means.

Since I talk a lot, and usually that talking is ramble-like, I thought it'd be better to leave a form of communication out so that when it is used, it speaks volumes. This is my take on touch.

There are those people who you talk to and they touch your shoulder or arm when they make a point like a cantor raises their arms when you're supposed to sing with them. They're saying, "hey this means something so look at me with concern or laugh at the joke that wasn't really that funny". I am not comfortable with touch in this way, because if their conversation was really funny or meaningful, then the words they say should communicate it, right? (Although for some of us who tend to space out when talking to others, that touch could be helpful.)

"I love you" is supposedly the most meaningful phrase, but if you say it all the time ("I love you, mouse pad"; "I love you, water bottle"; "I love you, I love you, I love you"), it loses its potency. Every subsequent (useless) "I love you" will detract that seriousness and honor that comes with the quip and the most meaningful phrase becomes just another piece of language (like "the toilet is clogged" or "don't drink that milk, it's 70 days past its expiration date"). Let's not get crazy with this hypothesis, though, because I've never been IN love so I don't know how the phrase is used to reinforce that relationship.

I believe quantity of everyday touch affects quality. If you touch a lot, you become that creepy guy with a dirty tank top and cutoff jean shorts, and your gesture of affection becomes either too much or is not noticed at all. If you reserve the touch for a genuine act of affection or love, then it is reinforced as a way of saying, "hey, I really really appreciate you and what you bring to my life and the fact that you call me when you want to dance interpretively to the song 'Turn Around Bright Eyes' with me".

So there's that.