Human Contact

"Basic human contact - it's bigger than any idea. It takes you outside yourself. It's more comforting than word. Without it, we die. Sometimes it's not enough, sometimes it's enough for now. Contact grounds you. It brings you back..."

I was watching this second episode of Saving Hope, a new medical drama (let's talk about how I so have time to watch all these when I should be busy burying myself with thesis work later), and it talked about the possibility that human contact, or specifically human touch, could bring you back to life if you're in a coma. Watching this well-made scene, I couldn't help but remember one story when I was having a bad fever.

It was a long time since I had my last fever and it reminded me that it didn't feel good at all. I was just back from the convocation in Penang for my master's degree, and for some reason, my body was failing me, when I could bat fever before it would become worse at any other times. I was shaking and no enough amount of blankets I could have that night that would take away the coldness. My mother gave me two pills of aspirin earlier and she said that tomorrow we'd go to the clinic first thing.

But, later that midnight, she went out of her room, and she checked up on me. I was still shaking, but I was also half asleep. She leaned toward me and touched my head, and rubbed it several times. It is the nicest feeling you can have when you are sick - to be touched, especially from someone you love. Then, she went ahead and changed the wet cloth above my head and rubbed my head again. Not much later, my fever started to go away. Little by little, I started to feel the heat caused by the blankets that I wrapped around myself. Until I completely recovered the next morning.

I didn't realize it, but I do remember how nice it was to be touched when I was in need of someone to take care of me. That's it, human touch is more than a physical gesture, it's a symbol. When done right, it can be an effective way to show someone that you love him or her. I think that's why it could replace aspirin to give the comfort.