Touch Part: II

Matt Lund was injured in an accident while out of town, his wife and newly born child were home in Utah where they were informed of the incident by a stale phone call. I spent an afternoon with Matt, his wife Brooke, and thier daughter Reagan at the University Hospital in Salt Lake. The story of the accident was relayed to me as it was probably relived in Brooke's mind as she described her feelings the first few days. I was not there when she saw her husband and Reagan's father finally after he returned home in a much different condition than he was when he routinely kissed her goodbye for the weekend. I didn't see how she reacted ,how she touched him in his vulnerable state. I don't want to imagine how that might have felt for her but I can imagine how Matt might have felt feeling the support I was privy to see months later in a yellow lit hospital hall. That must be how it is when you are married, or at least when you love someone that much, there is an attitude of "no matter what". I think that must be something beautiful if we could materialize it and give such an attitude or philosophy form. Hands reaching across his lap I saw perhaps a watered down manifestation of such support and love. Each movement we make is first executed in our brains with specific functions and expected results. Touching someone must be a sort of transmission of function, the path of a thought or feeling is shared and continues rather than being deleted after the movement comes to completion. Albert Schweitzer once said that as we grow older we will find that there are a lack of words to describe the many things we have felt. I am learning to agree with him, although it is within "speechlessness" is where the value of touch resides. I consider her touch and his reception; a connection to a symphony of various feelings and messages. Like any symphony it isn't always happy music, but usually ends on a higher note than it started.