What is it about mammals that makes us crave each other’s company?
Hedgehog, dog, cat, human– another body in contact with yours is the most comforting thing: you exist, here and now says that weight, however small, on your feet, your chest, your lap, your shoulder.
Even to think of it: hands touching hands, noses together, the thump of a tail, the turn-and-burrow beneath the blanket. I think we all want to keep warm. We all want a beating heart beside our own, more even than we crave conversation, because the body predates language.
More than by I love you we make our home in a shared gravity. We build a fort, a castle, a cave, a life, in the space between ourselves and the ones we can reach out and pull close.
Comments