Hi,
I wrote a newsletter in January listing all the topics our members wanted me to explore this year. One of my favourite topic requests was "everyday things that drive us bonkers".
Who would have thought that the inability to touch other humans – as well as things – without cringing and running to the bathroom would prove to be a dominant example of this feeling in 2020?
In the Netherlands, they’re even discussing "a 1.5-metre society" as the new normal for the foreseeable future. We are talking about building an entire society predicated on curtailing one sensory function. Let the profundity (and the bizarreness) of that sink in.
Today, I am thrilled to share with you the theme for my next series in keeping with our strange new world: touch!
To be sure, the timing is convenient for me to launch into this series, but I want to go far beyond the zeitgeist of the pandemic and physical distancing that we’ve all had enough of.
What I really want to write is a love story dedicated to touch – its politics, its biochemical mysteries, and its future.
Touch starvation: the (old) new feeling
What billions of people around the world are experiencing right now is a dramatic remapping of our relationship with a sense organ that is the largest in the human body – our skin – but hardly ever gets its due in popular discourse, if you leave aside the giant industrial complex that peddles everything from fairness creams to hand sanitisers.
Touch is a hugely political subject and is used to show you your place in the world. In India, for instance, centuries of discrimination against certain castes declared "untouchables" has fomented unspeakable violence and suffering.
And while the pandemic and physical distancing seem to have suddenly made "touch hunger" or "touch starvation" a complex, vexing, and urgent subject, for almost a billion people living with disability, this feeling is nothing new.
I have so many questions about touch in 2020 and beyond:
- What’s happening inside our brains as our skin is forced into this new reality?
- Are handshakes really dead?
- How does the feeling of "pollution" associated with touch now impact trust between humans and between humans and their milieus?
- Who is the greatest poet on touch?
What questions should I add to these? Write to me. If you’re a member, I’d love for you to log in to the platform and have your say (all my newsletters are also published on the site).
A new invitation code: NotAlone
Last week, I wrote a piece about how the pandemic is triggering suicides around the world. In it, I explained why suicides are a deeply personal concern for me, and how each one of us can help prevent suicides by doing three simple but very effective things.
I was joined by four experts, thinkers, and activists from four continents in the contribution section under the article. Together with our members, they shared valuable wisdom on how to prevent the spike in suicides often seen after large-scale humanitarian crises.
To me, these conversations on real, messy issues impacting real people best capture the three fundamental values of The Correspondent: collaborative, constructive, and transnational journalism.
Today, I am inviting you all to join the conversation on this critically urgent subject. If you aren’t already a member of The Correspondent, click here and sign up with my special two-month code: NotAlone.
I look forward to your ideas on how we can save lives.
PS: I am taking a break the rest of this week to attend to a sudden rise in anxiety. Please excuse delayed responses.
Be well, and see you next week.
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