It's been about nine months since most of us last clasped hands with a friend, a colleague at work or a new acquaintance lest we spread the new coronavirus. There haven't been many opportunities to shake hands while we've huddled at home more; when we have encountered people, it's been at a maybe-safe distance or on the other side of plexiglass.
As the pandemic was beginning, we wondered whether the handshake would disappear altogether, an outdated relic of germier days. We hoped not, because even this quotidian gesture seemed to fill our human need for physical contact.
Let's face it: It's time to kill the handshake.
Granted, that's easier said than done. This friendly affirmation of good intentions dates to way before people knew that infectious illnesses were caused by invisible microbes that often are spread by fingers and palms.
Greek funerary sculptures from 400 years before the birth of Christ depicted the newly deceased person shaking the hand of a loved one. A 9th century bas relief showed two rulers, Assyrian and Babylonian, forging an alliance through clasped hands.
During the 14th century, knights and soldiers would show each other that their extended right hands were empty of weapons.
What could be friendlier than not trying to kill the other guy?
But in modern America, it was the Quakers who gave the grasping of hands a new grip on life. According to the Quaker magazine Friends Journal, shaking hands as a farewell was widely adopted by the mid-17th century as a way for Quakers to avoid the bowing, hat-lifting and other forms of subservience seen in some religions and in society as a whole.
Shaking hands was egalitarian, warm and friendly--and it spread. Unfortunately, so do pathogens.
In a global economy and multicultural society, not to mention one beset by a potentially deadly virus, we need something with health-conscious and all-embracing appeal (without the embrace). Something that's simple to carry off, respects physical boundaries, symbolizes equality rather than hierarchy and yet conveys warmth.
The problem isn't lack of options. There are too many, including peace signs, head nods and Mr. Spock's Vulcan salutes. But in a time of division and universal distress, let us suggest the simple gesture of placing the right hand, or loose fist, briefly to the heart.
Our shirts won't care if our hands are limp or clammy.