Touching.....

[TiCam]

Our sense of touch shows us the shape, size and "feel" of our world.

Close your eyes, to better concentrate, and use the fingers of one hand to TOUCH the other. Notice how the back is softer than the palm? How smooth fingernails are?

Open your eyes and look very closely at that hand you just touched. See the knuckle wrinkles and veins on the back, the lines on the palm, the fingerprint whorls.

Discussing the helpful aspects of this sense leads down many interesting pathways.

We are kept SAFE by learning to avoid touching a burner or a flame, a sharp edge or point, very cold metal, ........ any other suggestions?

Our feelings are HAPPY when we stroke a dog, when we get a hug, when ..... ?

Our feelings are SAD when we run into something hard, cut our finger, .... ?

We wonder why we ITCH and why scratching that itchy nose relieves it.

Then the TICKLING CONUNDRUM is simply in a class of its own. Why does tickling make us laugh? Why are certain parts more ticklish than others? Why can't we tickle ourselves? Why is tickling funny for only so long, then it make us peevish? So many great questions arising from scientific cogitation, many are unanswerable to us.

Here's a touching story.

It is a warm day, I can really feel the heat on my face when I turn it up to the sky. As I walk along the soles of my bare feet are feeling something hard, hot and ridged. I turn and go down steps which feel the same, I hold onto the rail which also feels hot, hard and ridged against my palm. At the bottom of the steps my feet land on a soft surface which gives way with each step I take. After walking for a few minutes the ground feels hard and soon my feet are wet, air is gently blowing on all of my body. With each step my legs are getting wetter. I stop walking when I feel my knees getting wet. I turn around, see a friend in the distance and walk towards her. My foot comes down on something squishy and slimy in the water - Yuck! I run back to the beginning, up the steps and don't stop until my feet feel that hard ridged surface again. Where have I been?