Hugs

"Some years ago I met some scientists in the United States who said that the rate of mental illness in their country was quite high - around twelve percent of the population. It became clear during our discussion that the main cause of the depression was not lack of material necessities but a deprivation of the affection of others. This is very sad. Humans are not solitary animals that associate only in order to mate." Dalai Lama

AOL has been acting up the last couple of days so I hope that this addition to my journal comes through okay. It took forever to update my website last night since the system had trouble recognizing that I wasn't a "guest" trying to update someone else's site.

My mother brought home to me last night the value of hugs. She was talking to her sister last night when I came down to say goodnight. I always give her a hug and kiss goodnight. She was mentioning that to her sister and both of them were exclaiming how special that was that I did that.

I have a button in the top drawer of my chest that says "You can't get AIDS from a hug." It comes from the last science fiction convention that I ran. My charity for that convention was Starcross (http://www.starcross.org/) a small lay person community dedicated to helping children with AIDS. The button was very important to me because one of my guests, Ray Sharkey, had just been diagnosed with AIDS. Ray was a fabulous guest, opinionated, funny, entertaining. I'll never forget him asking my staff if he needed to come rescue me when a couple of them were dragging me towards Hospitality because I hadn't eaten that day. Right before he left I finally had a chance to really meet him and he saw my button and his eyes lit up. He gave me a big hug before he left.

Hugs may seem like a small thing but they can mean so much. They can say "I love you", "I'm sorry you are hurting", "I care." I have a t-shirt that asks "Have you hugged your cat today?" Well I have and do every day. Animals need a bit of affection also.

Hugs are the most powerful thing that you can do with your arms.

AOL is very messed up andI can't figure out how to get it to stop moving the pictures around. The picture is called To Touch the Stars and was done for a friend who has a Downs Syndrome child.

The real counter is 5178.