The Handshake

I needed a break after writing three liberating, mentally unsettling posts, and diving into the cornucopia of sadness. So, I went out to seem social and collective to myself. But, my mind is a muddle and my heart is a jumble. My chaotic mind realized Handshake and an automatic “Hello” response have become such a routine upon greeting someone except for those who bump fists and knocks you off.

People love to communicate physically, be it handshakes, hugs, mid-air kisses, those unruffled fist-bumps or a hug. Shaking hands is not universal but absolutely common. It is a form to greet others graciously and warmly to show some respect. Everyone raises their hands habitually—no wonder there. The handshake is a formula of greeting that has been around in some form as long as we have existed. (Lions shake hands too with their cute little paws, do you know?) Earlier in time, High-class people used to shake hands wearing gloves like The Queen and you could change gloves like the wind, throw them into the sea of forgetfulness.

There are essentially good handshakes and bad handshakes. Moreover, a bad handshake stays with us for too long. Now, I am not a Mysophobic, verminophobia, germophobia, germaphobia, bacillophobia and bacteriophobia and all those mouthful words as I am a hugger. However, I do have issues when people pick their nose just right before a handshake, or when they sneeze and whirl germs all around by shaking hands with that gunk, to show respect? I am petrified of people who don’t cover their mouths while coughing. Even, serpents don’t scare me that much. I don’t magistrate as I am a pretty shambolic individual myself. I favor joining hands together and saying “Namaste” to greet people as it saves me the after thoughts about where their hands have been. At times, they don’t even make eye contact and seem creeps while lowering their gaze. Sometimes, they are too dominant and want to take off along with my arm. And, the most important thing, I dread wet handshakes. If my hands are wet and somebody extends their arm to greet me, I am courteous enough to inform that my hands are wet and it would be inappropriate for me to shake hands but, “hey, how are you? What is up with you? work for me. I have sadly never received the hallmark of a quality handshake, the firm grip.

My instigative mind suspects that many of us, when ill, don’t cease to shake hands, maybe because we are too polite to think how we’re putting others at risk or due to the gawkiness of declining a handshake even for a legitimate reason. Like hand washing itself, the initiation necessary to notify others, we aren’t cupping your hands may often be too great, or the need to perform some gesture of greeting too strong to resist. People shake hands either like a dead fish or a wet fish. We must try to shake hands briefly and firmly while maintaining eye contact. It is as simple as that.

What kinds of handshake do you receive and prefer?