{"id":20832,"date":"2020-03-11T23:54:03","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T03:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/waynesword2\/?p=20832"},"modified":"2020-03-12T11:12:32","modified_gmt":"2020-03-12T15:12:32","slug":"requiem-for-the-hand-shake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/waynesword2\/2020\/03\/requiem-for-the-hand-shake\/","title":{"rendered":"REQUIEM FOR THE HAND-SHAKE…"},"content":{"rendered":"

REQUIEM FOR THE HAND-SHAKE\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been in sales –of\u00a0 solar products, custom additions, new construction, & mostly, Real Estate– for over 35 years as I write this, and shaking hands– at the end of each appointment, each meeting, each agreement, each contract, each personal contact, each attempted deal, and of course Every Real Deal– was never in question. \u00a0It had become so automatic that my right hand just propelled itself toward the client or potential customer as if to trigger and compel the mutual shake.\u00a0 Up until just recently, this was never a problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was an automatic part of the process of doing business for me, from Day One. \u00a0My first hard-core Sales Manager used to demonstrate: \u00a0\u00a0You look a man or woman (or both, respectively)\u00a0 in the eyes at the end of your meeting or encounter or session and \u00a0prepare to say goodbye with a sincere smile and a firm, meaningful grip\u2026as a matter of course, you shake their right hand, and they shake yours.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is how it has always been, <\/strong><\/p>\n

Until now.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I realize now, in considering this landmark shift and belweather change, the hand-shake\u00a0 habit goes way back…<\/p>\n

Because, long before I was in the business world, I was a gregarious and fanatic baller, as they now say… playing hoop\u00a0 nonstop in high school or summer leagues or pick-up games all over the place on outdoor courts, with friends or strangers,\u00a0 it didn\u2019t matter, you shook hands as a sign of respect.. and it was subtly understood as combative acknowledgement when each mock battle was concluded, it wuz just what you do, and did….<\/em> Sometimes it would just be a casual slap of the hands, other times a more intense soul shake, with the lean-in, shoulder-bump optional.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was part of the social ritual of the game itself.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0This carried over to my later days of coaching rec league hoop & Jr NBA games locally during the seasons when\u00a0 my son was playing most fervently, then assistant coaching at the CYO level, and then becoming a rabid parent watching AAU and later varsity games\u2026all the way up and down the line, players, coaches, relatives, supporters, fans, all shook hands after each contest\u2014it represented a communal love of the game.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I started attending musical events like rock concerts in the post-hippie era, and then professional jazz performances in downtown Albany as soon as I was old enough to drink, I came to realize that soul shakes were part of both forms of musical culture\u2014and if you were cool enough to visibly appreciate their music, those playing it were always amenable to shaking hands when the set, or the evening, was over\u2026\u00a0 again, part of the community between performer and listener.\u00a0 <\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

But it is sad to announce, amid all the other disruption and fear and dire health consequences delivered to us in The Year of the CoVid 19-Virus… It\u00a0 is making me\u2014and everyone else– \u00a0change a lifelong habit\u2026taking away– perhaps permanently?– one of the simplest, unspoken, and natural bonds of humanity\u2026 or at least the American version thereof.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not only do I have to avoid this natural impulse in business, as it turns out, but felt shunned by two very different friends this past weekend when running into them separately in the same trip to\u00a0 \u00a0the local health food store.\u00a0\u00a0 One pulled back and put her hands up as if to fend me off, then apologizing that she was all congested after a plane trip back from down south, and didn\u2019t want me to catch what she had.\u00a0 OK, understood, but I wasn\u2019t afraid of that I wanted to say.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Other dude, life long friend since college days, \u00a0a stalwart musician, married ow late in life, with me being the only local witness to the ceremony at city hall a few years back\u2026hadn\u2019t seen him in maybe 8 months, went to shake, then saw too late that he was going for the knuckle-bump alternative, \u00a0then went I complied, he even backed away from that.\u00a0 I was baffled.\u00a0\u00a0 Did he regard me as contaminated, or was he not feeling well either?\u00a0\u00a0 It had already become an imbedded, reflexive mechanism\u2026 NOT to allow hand contact of any time, and all this has just changed, as far as I can tell\u2026 in the past month!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

My \u00a0constantly-digressing mind took me back to something I\u2019d read long ago, late Elementary School years maybe, when I was nuts about the Robin Hood legends and tales of yore in England\u2026\u00a0 when travelers would approach each other on a path, they would reveal their \u201cfighting hand\u201d\u00a0 to show they were NOT carrying a weapon as they approached the other person.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Shaking hands confirmed that you were keeping the peace, \u00a0and would not draw weapons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But now our bare hands are regarded as weapons in this new age of viral warfare\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 and years after his death, it now appears Howard Hughes\u2014perhaps the world\u2019s most famous germo-phobe in recent history.. was right.\u00a0 The world is apparently full of microbial warriors, coming at us from all directions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, much as I rue<\/strong> the New Rools,<\/strong>\u00a0 as the Tools du Jour, here you are:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

NO MORE HAND-SHAKING, in greeting or departure!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0NO MORE HIGH FIVES!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0NOT EVEN FIST BUMPS NOW!<\/strong><\/p>\n

NO CONTACT WHAT SO EVER\u2026\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0TILL FURTHER NOTICE…<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hand-shake you all, in my mind, and thank you for reading this.<\/p>\n

PS: In no way do I mean to make light of, or minimize the risk represented by the still-new reality of this truly hideous Pandemic situation; this is just one small aspect of my reaction to something most of us did not see coming…<\/p>\n

— Wayne Perras,\u00a0 blogging from Saratoga Springs, Upstate NY, as of March 11, 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

REQUIEM FOR THE HAND-SHAKE\u2026 \u00a0 I\u2019ve been in sales –of\u00a0 solar products, custom additions, new construction, & mostly, Real Estate– for over 35 years as I write this, and shaking hands– at the end of each appointment, each meeting, each agreement, each contract, each personal contact, each attempted deal, and of course Every Real Deal– […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\r\nREQUIEM FOR THE HAND-SHAKE... - WaynesWord2: A Saratoga Blog By Wayne Perras<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/waynesword2\/2020\/03\/requiem-for-the-hand-shake\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"REQUIEM FOR THE HAND-SHAKE... - 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