A Hug Works Like Medicine

By Gale Ngakane
Correspondent | Monday February 8, 2010 00:00

 

Hugging, like eating, sleeping, and a handshake, is deemed such an everyday occurrence it does not warrant any special attention at all.

'I do it so often, I often forget I ever do it. In fact, had you not reminded me, I would not have realised that I hugged a friend of mine just this morning,' says Lebo, a shop assistant who did not even want to give her full names.

'It is not necessary to give you my full names. Just call me Lebo,' she says.

A friend of Lebo, however, is adamant she does not hug. She says it is a childish practice and whenever she meets her friends- even long lost ones, she just shakes their hands.

A court interpreter, Kebonye Mpedi says she cannot do without a hug.

She says it makes her feel very important when a friend she has been missing suddenly turns up and they hug.

She must have taken a leaf from an American actress Drew Barrymore who is quoted as saying : 'I love hugging. I wish I were an octopus so I could hug 10 people at the same time.

Or she is a firm believer in another saying: 'A hug is the shortest distance between friends.'

Gosego Kebokilwe, 28, a hairdresser at a salon in Francistown says she hugs only people that she knows.

'I just can't hug a person I do not know. What would people say about me if I went around hugging people I did not know? That is reserved for loved ones only,' she says with a nostalgic smile on her face.

Her client, who declined to give her name says she does not mind who she hugs as long as those people have good breath and do not have smelling armpits.

'There have been instances where I hugged a person only to regret it later because they would be having either smelly armpits or their breath will be really bad,' she says.

Like a good laugh, hugging is described in many superlatives. An unknown author says of hugging:

'Hugging is good medicine. It transfers energy, and gives the person hugged an emotional boost. You need four hugs a day for survival, eight for maintenance, and 12 for growth. A hug makes you feel good.

The skin is the largest organ we have and it needs a great deal of care. A hug can cover a lot of skin and gives the message that you care. It is also a form of communication.

It can say things you don't have words for. The nicest thing about a hug is that you usually can't give one without getting one. 'Someone even said a hug is the perfect gift, one size fits all and nobody minds if you exchange/return it.

Another quote from Bill Keane says :'A hug is like a boomerang- you get it back right.'

Some people like Dean Walley have gone poetic about hugging. A published author of children's books, her poem about hugging goes:

'It's wondrous what a hug can do/ A hug can cheer you when you're blue/A hug can say, 'I love you so,'/Or, 'I hate to see you go.'

A hug is 'Welcome back again.'/And 'Great to see you! Where 'er you been?'/A hug can soothe a small child's pain /And bring a rainbow after rain / The hug, there's just no doubt about it /We scarcely could survive without it! /A hug delights and warms and charms; /It must be why God gave us arms /Hugs are great for fathers and mothers, /Sweet for sisters, swell for brothers; /And chances are/ your favourite aunts /love them more than potted plants. /Kittens crave them, puppies love them, /Heads of states are not above them.

A hug can break the language barrier /And make your travel so much merrier / No need to fret about your store of 'em; /The more you give, the more there are of 'em.

 So stretch those arms without delay and give someone a hug today!