Topic: fear of intimacy

It was sometime around junior high that I started to notice a trend. It was never directed at me (at the time anyway) but I remember thinking it was really, really weird. Now, forgive me for this bit of horrible cliche, but it was the popular girls who did it: they hugged each other as a greeting. As in, they’d walk up to each other on the blacktop and embrace, even though they’d seen each other in some form or another all day. It was a hug as if to say, “Hello. It is lunchtime now.” This struck me as significant even though it seemed like everything these girls did was part of a hollow, decorous routine. Though it is not their fault More »