huggies

Hey there. 
Been awhile, hasn't it?
Good to see you, thanks for stopping by.
Today we're talking about huggies (note the lower case "h" as opposed to the upper case related diapers "H" which is most definitely not what I'm on about . . . at the moment.  Depends.)   (Get it?)
Nah, it's about hugs.  I love hugs.  Love getting them, love giving them, but quite often the frequency isn't  astronomical.  Which is why I close my eyes every time when I get one.
How about you, do you close your eyes when the hug comes?
In my version of reality a hug's a hug.  Parent, lover, friend . . . it's a hug.  They aren't a big deal, it's just a show of affection.  It's not a scandalous level of intimacy in my book--of course, others may feel differently.  There are people who give you the one arm around the shoulder pat with the back-away follow through.  You have the giant bear hug, meant to--playfully!--squeeze the air from your body, and if you're lucky you get lifted into the air you just expelled as well.  There's the torso lean, where the commitment to the hug is the shoulder on shoulder action and nothing more.  And, of course, the full on hug dismissal--lean forward but do nothing but extend the arms and bestow a fleeting squeeze of the shoulders, maybe with a quick pat on the back, that leaves as little physical contact as humanly possible.
(oooooooooo-we!  What's up with that?  What's up with that?)
Mental and physical connection are two different experiences.  "I hear you, my man," isn't the same as a full on body-to-body hug, which conveys the deeper, "I feel you, man."
Hypocrite!  You just said it's not about intimacy.
Depends.
Of course it's about intimacy--allowing someone in your personal space is, of course, a personal choice.  Unless you're on Free Hug Street, it has to mean something.  But it doesn't mean everything . . . you younger readers might have had relationships fall apart because significant other A was hugging tramp/gigolo C and It. IS. OVER how could you DO this to ME?!!  Now I don't have a date to the sock hop.
But cereally, kids, no Trix--the level of intimacy of  a hug does not vary from person to person;  the relationship with the person you are giving a hug to is the actual variable.  A familial hug bestows the love for that relative, and generally won't lead to much beyond a hug--there's no romance in it.  A hug you give to a lover, well, that just may lead to something else--something more intimate than you can discuss in polite company (remember, photos are worth a thousand words).  And friends, well . . . friends are just that.
Friendly.
But if that friend . . . or confidant . . . is close enough to you to be receiving a hug (or delivering a hug), then it is certainly an acceptance that there is a special place in the heart for them.
So I close my eyes, and let them in.  It's that moment of connection, that personal vulnerability,  that very acceptance, that envelopes like a warm blanket, and I revel in it, bathe in it, and let it cascade over me because very shortly, it will crest and retreat.
See you next time.

-Do you have to let it linger? Do you have to, do you have to,
Do you have to let it linger?

 The Cranberries, "Linger"  (lyrics by Dolores Mary O'Riordan and Noel Hogan)