FIST BUMPS

 

 

     We all know how good the feeling is to shake hands.  It seems to be a habit that we have learned from childhood.   It’s a custom that has quite a long history.  One explanation of its origin goes back to medieval times when knights would show and grip each others’ hands to confirm that they were not concealing weapons and meant no harm to each other.  The first documented human handshake appears in museum archaeological displays of Assyrian-Babylonian friendship.   Ancient texts show that handshaking was practiced in ancient Greece as far back as the Fifth Century B.C.  
     Handshaking is done upon meeting, greeting, and parting, offering congratulations, expressing gratitude, or completing an agreement.  It’s also done as a sign of good sportsmanship to convey trust, respect and equality.   Today, there appears to be a glitch to this practice.  Have you noticed the prevalence of antiseptics made available for us in grocery stores, hotels, cruise ships, hospitals and many other public places?  We are encouraged to wash our hands or use products such as Purell or Lysol Wipes.  We are not becoming mysophobic (fearful of germs), but there is a major drive toward health consciousness to avoid the spread of germs, particularly from our hands.
     The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 80% of all infections are transmitted by hands.  The CDC points out that hand washing is like a “Do it Yourself” vaccine involving five easy steps:  Wet, Lather, Scrub, Rinse, and Dry.  This process can reduce the spread of diarrheal and respiratory diseases.  The spread of influenza, an attributable illness in adults, costs the nation $83.3 billion each year in lost productivity and medical bills.
     There is a movement afoot to end hand shaking by introducing a style of greeting referred to as Fist Bumps or High Fives.  Researchers at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth University in Wales documented that Fist Bumps are 20 times more hygienic than handshakes.  The results were published online (2014) in the American Journal of Infection Control.  Dr. David Bishai at Johns Hopkins University (2011) was inspired to study handshaking by observing 16 graduations of 5,000 students in which Deans and seniors shook hands.  He had the left and right hands of the deans before and after each handshake cultured.  There was some pathogenic evidence in only the right hand.  But, the results were not significant.   The point is that contamination by hand shaking may yet to be confirmed. There is no doubt that handshakes do transmit pathogens.
     A Fist Bump is performed when two participants each form a closed fist with one hand and then lightly tap the front of their fists together.  This sign may be done with either hand.  Fist bumping first appeared in the 1940s as biker gangs gained popularity.  Motorcyclists sitting next to each other at traffic lights found it easier, given their riding stance to extend a quick fist bump to a fellow rider.  Today, it appears to have become popular with young people and also among athletes competing.
     I doubt whether we, as seniors so habituated by hand shaking, may find it comfortable to resort to such a greeting. Yet, maybe we could give it a try.  

 If nothing else, be sure to wash our hands often and after a   hand shake.

 

 

 

 

 

              

 

 

 

 

 

              

SELFIES

 Somehow or other, my curiosity has been aroused whenever I have seen the word selfie.  I looked it up in the dictionary and did not find any definition for it.   My further study indicated that on November 19, 2013 Oxford Dictionaries announced it as its Word of the Year.   Research by its language editors reveals that the frequency of the word in the English language has increased by 17,000 percent.  Selfie is not yet in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) but is being considered for future inclusion.  Now, what does it mean?  It is a self-portrait photograph usually taken with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone that is uploaded to social media.

 The impact modern technology has made on cultures is amazing.  Think about it!  Before the dawn of a camera, self-portraits were created by hand. Witness those of great artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, Salvatore Dali, Pierre Renoir and Rafael. Today, with a click on a camera, a selfie is formed.

 And, what a remarkable invention the camera is!  Its origin dates back to the ancient Chinese and Greeks when the principles behind the pinhole camera or camera obscura were developed where the image is flipped upside down because light travels in straight lines from its source.  Eventually, the theory of optics emerged.  The daguerreotype (French) method was introduced in 1839 as the first publicly announced photographic process to come into widespread use.  We may remember seeing some of those daguerreotypes produced by Mathew Brady, a famous military photographer of the Civil War.  

 The introduction of the Kodak Brownie box camera in 1900 led to photographic self-portraits becoming a more widespread method.  Now, the popularity of digital cameras and smart phones has blossomed like a bed of flowers that really didn’t need to be watered. The corporations such as Samsung, Sony, Apple, T-Mobile and Verizon have captured the consumer market.

 Secretary of State John Kerry was in a photograph Thursday, May 2, 2014 in the issue of the Sun Sentinel while he was visiting a hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  He is shown taking a selfie with his arm outreached in front of him while standing among nurses and workers at the Ghandi Memorial Hospital.  Initially, selfies have become popular with young people, as well as celebrities, and are most frequently posted on Facebook.  Time magazine by the end of 2012 considered selfie one of the top 10 buzz words of that year.  It is interesting that the origin of the word selfie has been attributed to a slang expression back in 2002 first appearing in an Australian internet forum (ABC Online) of a Young Australian who having fallen accidentally while drunk at a mate’s 21^st party apologized profusely while trying to take a picture saying, “and sorry about the poor focus, it was a selfie”. 

 Whatever the case may be, the selfie is here to stay.  Perhaps anyone who has yet to use or own a Smartphone may be out of touch with the contemporary scene of popular photography. 

 

  Maybe it could be enjoyable to use   one.

 

 

A SENSE OF HUMOR

 

     The Review Section of the Wall Street Journal of Saturday, March 22, 2014 had a very interesting article called “It’s Funny How Humor Actually Works.” by Dr. Scott Weems, a researcher at the University of Maryland.  His recent book is “Ha! The Science of When We Laugh and Why” (Basic Books, 2014).   He discusses how humor is a form of exercise that keeps the brain active.  A study by Avner Ziv of Tel Aviv University found that those who listened to a comedy album before taking a creativity test performed 20 percent better than those who were not exposed to the album beforehand.   Researchers at the University of Maryland discovered that watching comedy more than doubles one’s ability to solve brain teasers.
     Humor also helps to prepare the mind to deal with stressful events. A study by Arnold Cann, a psychologist, at the University of North Carolina had subjects watch 16 minutes of stand-up comedy before seeing an infamous shock film depicting gruesome scenes.  Those who watched the comedy before the horrid film experienced significantly less stress than those who first watched a travel show instead.
     Dr. Weems makes a further point that not every kind of humor is helpful.  Taking a sardonic, sarcastic or derisive attitude toward life can be unhealthy, especially when it relies on constant self deprecation.  Nicholas Kniper of the University of Western Ontario reports that individuals who resort to this type of humor exhibit higher rates of depression with higher anxiety and lower self-esteem.  Enjoying a good laugh at oneself can be healthy as long as one isn’t always the brunt of the humor.
     It’s well known that humor and laughter is the best medicine.  They also play a significant role in building strong, healthy associations by bringing people closer together.  When establishing a new relationship, humor can be effective in overcoming any awkwardness that may arise during the process of getting to know one another.  In long-term relationships humor can keep things fresh and exciting.  When one laughs with another, a positive bond is created.  Humor is not a miracle cure for interpersonal problems; but, it can be an excellent tool to help overcome the rough spots that occur from time to time.
     There is no age limit for a moment of laughter, “Doctor, I’m having a very difficult time hearing.”  The doctor asks, “Which ear is it?”  The man answers, “2014.”   

                       A sense of humor is the key to resilience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

                                 HARD-WIRED RESPONSES

                                                             

In the last issue I addressed body language as one part of nonverbal communication.  Another component is the body’s response to stress.  There is a physiological reaction that occurs in each of us that can be exciting in a positive or terrifying way mentally or physically.   Such a condition has been researched to reveal that this excited state creates what has come to be called the fight-or-flight syndrome described in the 1920’s by an American physiologist Walter Cannon.   Essentially, it is a response that prepares the body to either fight or flee a threat perceived as real or imaginary.  Cannon discovered that our sympathetic nervous system is the part that operates unconsciously stimulating the release of hormones and glands which results in an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and breathing.  It takes between 20 to 30 minutes for the body to return to its pre-arousal level after the threat is gone, 

Regardless of our age, stress is part of life and the way to handle it is how we deal with it.  At this point, it’s important to understand the difference between two of its attributes, fear and anxiety which occur in the fight or flight syndrome.   Both are helpful and provide us with valuable information.   These hard-wired responses tell us when danger is present and get us ready to act.   Fear is the emotion you experience when facing an actual situation.  For example, you might be afraid of snakes because the fear you have has a direct object.  Even when you are away from them you may still be afraid of them but your emotion may not be as high as if you were actually in front of them.  Whereas, with anxiety you experience uneasiness about something in which there is no direct object to fear but rather a free floating anxiousness or uncertainty about something that you might experience, but is not a direct object.  So we can say you have a high level of chronic apprehension or worry.  For example, if you don’t know whether you passed or failed a test or whether the storm will hit your house, you remain anxious.   Anxiety is more an intense level of worry often referred to in psychology as “angst” (From: German, a feeling of deep anxiety or dread, typically unfocused  about the human condition or the state of the world in general, a feeling of persistent worry about something even trivial).  It has been said that worry is like sitting in a rocking chair.  It can keep you very busy but it won’t get you anywhere.

An Austrian-Canadian endocrinologist, Hans Selye, did extensive research and documented that the physiology of stress differs from other physical responses in that it has two components:  a set of responses which he called the “general adaptation syndrome” and the development of a pathological state referred to as “ongoing, unrelieved stress”.  He considered these states to be largely attributed to glandular changes.   Whether one receives good or bad news, the impulses are stress.  He calls ones that are negative “distress” and those positive “eustress”. Thus, to him there are reservoirs of stress resistance and stress energy.   In conclusion, hard-wired responses can be neurological or glandular in origin.  Yet, it is up to us how we handle stress.

EYES SPEAK

Perhaps the most significant tool in non-verbal communication is our eyes.

Imagine how much we can learn from each other without saying a word.  We all read people’s eyes sometimes without even knowing why or how we do it.  It seems to be an inborn ability.  We can be 100 to 200 feet away from another person and still have eye contact.  We may not have details but we have the awesome facility to see and even interpret what the other person is signaling to us.

What about when we play cards such as bridge, poker or canasta? How much are we in tune to read the eye messages that we send and receive from each other?  Sometimes, an eye shrug which is often an upward roll of the eyes may signal frustration or exasperation, as if looking to the heavens for help.  Maybe, it’s like sending a non-verbal message such as, “let’s move on or play the hand, or do something, or stop wasting time!”

Then, of course there’s the wink, essentially a very intimate signal.  It is usually directed exclusively from one person to another as a friendly greeting, recognition or acknowledgement.  However, it is interesting to note that a wink can carry more personal meaning than a handshake or a kiss on the cheek.  It can also be a way of signaling a shared secret or a joke.

Eyes that stay focused on another’s are generally regarded as a sign of showing interest toward what is being signaled.  Yet, one may be attentive but harbor thoughts of deceit, defensiveness or suspicion.   Many inferences can be made by a sender or receiver.  Therefore, it is important to be conscious of how we communicate with our eyes.  

They speak without a sound!.

      

BODY LANGUAGE

It's really amazing how much we tell each other without saying a word.  How we move, sit, stand, look, lean or even touch can convey what we think, feel or want.

Obviously, people who are mentally or physically challenged in using the sense of hearing, speaking, moving or seeing learn to communicate very well by compensating for any deficit they may have.  But, I am saying that those of us who have all our faculties sometimes forget or ignore the kinds of messages we send to one another.

Body language is referred to as Kinesics (pronounced “kineesicks”, from the Greek, meaning motion) and is only one aspect of the entire field of non-verbal communication.   The latter encompasses much more such as voice quality (paralanguage), touch (haptics), distance, informal space around the body (proxemics), use of time (chronemics) and eye contact (oculesics) which involves the actions of looking while talking and listening, frequency of glances, patterns of fixation, pupil dilation and blinking rate.  Body language is usually subconscious behavior and is, therefore, considered distinct from sign language, which is fully conscious and an intentional act of communication.

Given the many factors involved in body language, this article will address how body postures can affect our relationships.  Slouching, towering over another, legs spread or crossed, jaws thrust, shoulders forward, and arms crossed can send or be received as  messages interpreted as good or bad.   They can indicate the degree of (1) “openness” one may have to another person.   A person who displays a forward lean or decreases a backward lean also signifies a positive sentiment during communication.   In social situations it’s important to observe how we interact personally regardless of what we say.  Perhaps the saying, “Actions speak louder than words” has true meaning.

Studies (2) of posture on interpersonal relationships indicate that mirror-image congruent  postures, where one person’s left side is parallel to the other’s right side, leads to a favorable perception of communicators and positive speech.   Why then, for years , people are interviewed in offices usually  placed in a face to face position with the interviewer?  Perhaps that’s more of a protection for the interviewer?  It seems that such a position makes it more difficult to establish openness.

Sometimes we are not aware of  how important it is to try and  be more sensitive when connecting in social conversations.  How much are we in touch with ourselves and those around us?

1. Knapp, Mark L., & Hall, Judith A. (2007) Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction . (5^th ed.) Wadsworth: Thomas Learning. ISBN 0-15-506372-3

2.. Bull, P. E. (1987). Posture and Gesture. Oxford: Pergamon Press. ISBN 0-08-031332-9.   

THANKSGIVUKKAH

 

 

     Two of the winter holidays, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, will have passed by the time you have read this article.  Nevertheless, my curiosity motivated me to find out why this year both holidays fell on the same day, November 28, 2013.  It so happens that Thanksgiving is set as the fourth Thursday in November.  That day is also the earliest Hanukkah can occur because the Jewish calendar repeats on a 19-year cycle based on a lunar calendar.  Thanksgiving repeats on a 7-year cycle.  Therefore, one would expect them to happen together roughly every (19x7) =133 years.  
    The last time that would have happened was in 1861.  However, Thanksgiving was only formerly established by President Lincoln in 1863.  So, it has never happened before.   Will this unique convergence of the two holidays ever happen again?  The Jewish calendar is very slowly getting out of sync with the solar calendar.  But, if the Jewish calendar is never modified in any way, then it will slowly move forward until it loops all the way back to where it is now and Hanukkah will occur at the end of the month in approximately 77,798 years.
     What is even more interesting is that this occurrence has really generated a modern culture where the merging of the two holidays has blossomed into a dramatic appreciation of shared liberty.  Think about it.  The Pilgrims traveled from Europe to escape religious persecution.  They sought religious freedom in the new land of America and miraculously endured a long and dangerous journey.  When they arrived at Plymouth in 1620, they survived a harsh winter of famine and death.   Similarly, the story of Hanukkah depicts the struggle that Jewish people faced after Syrian Greek soldiers seized the Temple in Jerusalem and made the observance of Judaism punishable by death.  The combining of the two holidays has provided an opportunity to honor one giant celebration of thankfulness for religious freedom.  

 Thus, we had “Thanskgivukkah”!!!