You Give Great Hugs

I was at my 6 month check up at my dermatologists. I have been going since my Aunt got a melanoma and died  6 months later in 1995. So, when I went then I had to have my first skin cancer cut off my face. But luckily, most of them are plastic surgeons too so no one noticed except for 6 months my right eyelid was tighter than was comfortable until the skin stretched out after the surgery.

Today it was just a routine visit with a couple of things frozen off: One off the top of my forehead and one on my left ear lobe. I really felt the forehead one freezing off because it was very near a major nerve center but I was still okay with it.

As I was getting ready to leave I gave my dermatologist a hug as my wife and I had helped her through her mother's passing because she passed not long after my mother did from similar causes. So, there is something we share as people who have lost parents sort of in the same context. She said, "You give really great hugs!" And I said, "I'm out of the 1960s where everybody had long hair. I used to go to parties and have to hug everyone but usually I only wanted to hug about 50% or 75% of the people there but out of cultural protocol of the times I had to hug everyone to be "Cool" so I did.

She mentioned that a patient of hers took off a sweater and she thought he wanted to hug her. And I said, "Oh. He stiffened up on you?" She gave me a funny look and later I realized this could be taken in more ways than one." But it all reminded me of how different everyone is these days from those times in the 1960s when some of us were very free and loved everyone we could with hugs. But, I have always liked the fact that I "Give Great Hugs". I also said to her, "Now I only hug who I really want to."