In Praise of the Bubble
or
the Touchy Touchee
About a week after it appeared, allow me to draw your attention to this WSJ article on touching in the workplace.
My family has a strong appreciation of the invisible bubble that each one of us is born with. [No...a bubble. Not a caul. A) a caul is not invisible. B) if any of my children had been born in a caul you certainly would have heard about it before.] Some of us are more sensitive than others. Martha, for example, was deeply interested in defining the perimeters of her bubble while still in utero. This was not comfortable. Not for me.

So, anyway, this is a very interesting article about defining and protecting one's bubble (and the bubbles of others) in the workplace.

“There aren’t standards about what touching is nonsexual other than handshakes,” says Larry Stybel, a Boston management consultant. “If we are sitting alongside each other and I put my hand on your knee, is that a friendly sign of affection or a sexual come-on? I don’t know, and I don’t know how you will perceive it. So let’s not even go there.”

The same issue also had a fascinating article that I have printed out and intend to take with me to my internist next month. She doesn't mind that sort of thing. (And I have promised to use the GOOGLE responsibly in health matters.) Perhaps this article could shed a little light on the familial (all girls!), multi-generational extreme early onset hypertension: The Rare Disease that Isn't Which is, of course, exacerbated by having our bubbles impinged upon. That was a double-whammy for Fran - when she was twelve and had to undergo all sorts of kidney/adrenal tests because of her elevated blood pressure. Before they could get to her kidneys...they had to invade her bubble!