Money never hugs you back

 

I’ve been hugged many times, but there are hugs and hugs, and there are some that can be overwhelming. One such was a week or two ago and brought to mind something I experienced in 1982.

In 1982 I visited Sousa Junior High School in the Bronx as part of my one-year teacher exchange in New York. Its principal was Dr H Wilson Brindle. At first glance he looked an avuncular, middle-aged black man, but as I walked in and he rose from his desk perception radically changed. He radiated an invisible charge, growing stronger as he approached me. When he offered his hand, the effect was almost electric. You can read (and it’s worth reading)  more about him here. 

So back to the hug. I give them and I take them now as a matter of course. In fact, when I think of it, that too is largely a result of that year in America when everyone seemed to hug at the drop a hat. I on the other hand was a cold Northern fish. Hugging was something done between consenting adults, which in a sense it is. All this was new to me at the time, but I learnt and adapted and never looked back. Thank you, America!

Hugs aren’t meant to be rated, as in Strictly Come Dancing, but there are hugs that unaccountably transcend the normal. They possess a strong and mysterious power creating an immense sense of well-being—so much so you don’t really want it to end. They are few and far between, perhaps mercifully; they could be some kind of gateway drug to something else entirely. But seriously, what on earth is it? 

Spiritual? For Hildegard of Bingen there is no doubt in the matter, and I rather think I’d like being hugged by her. ‘The mystery of God hugs you in its all-encompassing arms.’ Anoir Ou-Chod thinks on similar lines. ‘A hug is the bridge between two souls.’ Though I have less inclination to be hugged by him. 

Politicians, perhaps predictably, approach hugs more warily. ‘Once a bear’s hug has got you, it is apt to be for keeps.’ Harold MacMillan.

Lyndon Baines Johnson thought much the same thing. ‘Hug your friends tight but your enemies tighter – hug them so tight they can’t wriggle.’ 

Clearly some hugs come with health warnings, but whether spiritual or unexplained charisma on tap they can be a force to be reckoned with.