Holding Hands

Holding hands at midnight

Neath a starry sky

Oh that is nice work if you can get it

And you can get it if you try...

George Gershwin wrote the music and his brother Ira penned the lyrics for “Nice Work if You Can Get It”, a song for the 1937 motion picture “Damsel in Distress” which starred Fred Astaire and Joan Fontaine. Astaire sang the song which has since become a classic. Many another songbird has tried a hand at it but Mr. Astaire's version remains the gold standard. Joan Fontaine, very young and quite pretty at the time, pretended to dance with him. You will recall that Astaire danced with a clothes tree and a handful of other inanimate objects over his long years in film. Joan was surely among them. No matter, the Gershwin brothers' magic with words and music made for an enjoyable movie outing.

Back to holding hands at midnight or at any other time for that matter. Here at   In-Person Communications we pay very close attention to body language for it gives us a clue to the relationship (or little relationship or absolutely no relationship) between a speaker and his/her audience. Hands specifically are the most important aspect in the body language mix.

During the month of February when most of our clients and friends were experiencing the Winter from Hell, my wife and I basked in the warmth of The Sunny South (yet far enough from Atlanta and their own huge weather problems.)  So while whiling away many an hour at a lovely beach we had repeated opportunity to observe boys and girls, men and women, strolling the beach holding hands. Romance is lovely to behold, be it puppy love, the middle years, senior stage or the senior-senior world. And yes, as a member of the senior-senior group I've heard the joke that holding hands is “more for assistance than romance.” I'm blessed with both when I hold the hand of Mrs. Reilly.

In these days of rushing here and there, multitasking (or attempting to), gulping or skipping meals, frantically trying to bi-locate in order to be present at two appointments at the same time, important relationships suffer mightily. And none more so than the primary twosome, you and your beloved. I don't say that holding hands is the ultimate answer to keeping romance alive. I just suggest it is darn sure worth doing more of it than you have in the past.