RAOKA – Hugs

What fun.  Today I get to write about a RAOKA topic that I threw into the suggestion box.  I thought about the most kick arse thing I could think of, and that thing is the good ole hug.  It’s the only thing in the entire world that I can think of that makes everything seem ok.  For a brief moment you are wrapped in the arms of love and protection.  You are shielded from every day worries, while making a deep connection to another human being.

I wish hugs were more common place in our culture.  I wish instead of shaking hands, you could reach out and give a big hug to your friends.  It’s certainly not common place though, and would actually seem a bit weird.  I’m not necessarily one to start trend either, so for now, most of my hugs are limited to family. 

I’ll tell you right now, my favorite hug of all comes from my daughter.  My absolute favorites are the hugs she decides to give out of the blue, just all of a sudden deciding she could use a big squeeze from daddy. 

A very close second to that are the hugs from my wife, when I get home from a long day at work.  It’s a greeting that says, I love you, welcome home, the work day is over, you can now enjoy time with the family.  At the same time, it’s me telling her that I love you, I’m home, I know you’ve had a busy day also, and I’m happy to be here with you.  It says all that and more, without speaking a word.  There is something magical about that.

There is one odd thing about hugs that always comes to mind whenever I think about hugs.  That is the social acceptability of hugs between sexes. 

Men hugging women and women hugging men – A-OK, perfectly acceptable

Women hugging women – Generally ok, and typically acceptable

Men hugging men – Weird

Why is that?  Why is it weird for men to hug men?  I’m not really sure, but I certainly feel uncomfortable hugging other men.  Hugging my dad is no problem, but hugging male friends is uncomfortable.  I’m sure it’s just a societal norm that has been engrained in me over time, but I’m not sure how to change it.  And if I do try to change it, by giving out more male hugs, I’m sure to be met with resistance and strange looks. 

I have a good friend Matthew, who often reads my blog.  Sometimes while hanging out with friends, he’ll pull up my blog on his iPhone or spew out a quote from a post.  Most people don’t even notice and generally ignore him, making it mostly and inside joke kind of thing.  The whole time I’m writing about hugs, I’m picturing him asking for a big hug the next time we cross paths.  It’s mostly because he’s crazy enough to actually do it, even though it would be very weird in our manly group of friends. 

I’m not sure what else to say about the man to man hug other than I’ll take those one hug at a time if they happen to come up.  For now, I’ll mostly stick with the family hugs that I cherish so much. 

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What is RAOKA? How can “you” be a part of it?
The RAOKA mission seeks to remind us that Random Acts of Kick Arse happen all around us—and also to spread the spirit. Each month, us RAOKA team core members vote on a new theme based on your submissions.
On the first Wednesday of each month (US time zone) we invite everyone to post about what we’ve observed, passed along, or created. During the first ten days of the month, contact Zeenat with your theme ideas for the next month.

Check out the other RAOKA Hugs posts:

-Zeenat @ Positive Provocations wrote – Healing Hugs Experiment
-M @ The Exception wrote -So Many Kinds of Hugs
-Joy @ Unfolding Your Path To Joy wrote -RAOKA-Hugs..
-Gayze @Gazehound’s Animal Communication wrote-  RAOKA Theme HUGS
-Keith @ Straight Up Living wrote -Powerful Four Letter Word!

Tagged as: Family, Friends, Hugs