Medicinal Hugs and Religion

I would like to comment on the outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit today, but I honestly don't have a clue as to whether the representatives came up with anything substantive. It feels more like Kyoto Light than a breakthrough.

So I'll tell you about a moment from visiting yesterday. I went to see a lovely elderly woman from our congregation who lives in a nursing home because of dementia. She almost always knows me by name when I show up and she goes out for hours on long walks and always finds her way back to the home. Yet she ruefully admits that she can't remember events from earlier in the day and others often inform her that she has been out for a walk she doesn't realize she has taken.

I found her in a sitting area along with three other women I didn't know. That didn't stop them from entering into the conversation and we had a lively chat for a half hour. I offered to read the Christmas story from Luke, and they were all pleased. After a prayer I offered a goodbye hug to our member and one of the others said "I want one of those!" In the end I hugged all four of them. I'm careful about physical touch and often wait years before I suggest a hug. They were lined up and ready,having met me less than an hour before. It was quite touching. Sometimes I find that the elderly enter into the vulnerability they probably haven't known since childhood.

A recent study has shown that hugs meet or exceed the effects of religion in a person's life. Why not go for both!