This

The human touch is something you don't realize you miss until it's gone. However, this is not the touch I am so compelled to describe. No, not just any touch. The touch. I witnessed it for the first time with this guy and girl at the airport a couple days ago. They were dressed in what might be classified as the ‟unkempt hippie look” and I proceeded to categorize them as organic food-eating, anti-soap, anti-establishment, anti-anything modern world individuals, something I reluctantly admit now. And while they very well may have been those things, it was not for me to unravel or judge. What is the need man has to box things in? This must be eliminated. Anyways, what really struck me the most about them was their exchange with one another. It was shocking, really. Not because it was coming from them, but the act itself would've shocked most observant individuals. The exchange didn't involve an overt display of tongue or a rubdown that might merit a ‟get a room” rebuttal. No, this exchange was so clear. So pure. So subtle. She was sitting across from him at a table situated in front of the bistro stand at gate 37. He spoke and between sentences would occasionally drop his head boyishly and look up at her with grinning admiration from beneath his perfectly round spectacles. He looked at her as though she were a majestic sunset, with utter devotion and contemplation. I am always moved when a man can do this. Women often display gestures of this nature easily. But I so adore this sentiment coming from a man. She grinned back at him. Some words were exchanged. I imagined it was something to the effect of “I'll go get it. You stay here.” And then it happened. The exchange. She stood to her feet and before she parted to the vending machine or snack stand to get whatever had created this moment, she walked over to him. She sat softly on the edge of his lap, and gave him the most endearing kiss on the cheek and then, the warmest embrace I've ever witnessed between two people was shared. When she hugged him, her hands did not merely gather around his neck. She slowly grabbed the back of his head and intertwined her fingers around it. He gently brushed the strands of hair behind her ear. She cupped his cheek in her hand while hers met the other side of his face. He nestled his head in the warmth curvature of her neck and gave her a gentle kiss. It was breathtaking. Something I've never before seen. Yes, one sees people hug and kiss everyday. We are bombarded daily by images and characters of romance and love, lust and sex. But this was something else. Something different. Something of another kind. Perhaps not ever captured in even the most romantic of movies or pictures. It was enchantment. The kind of uninhibited embrace. At one moment it was unclear if she would return. Perhaps they were taking two separate flights and this was the final goodbye before she walked to her own gate. Yet, the beauty was in that this was not a last goodbye. No two-flight-farewell. Just simplicity. For the only reason. There was peace and calm between them. A love that beamed. I was listening to ‟Black Tables” by Other Lives at that moment and it became a soundtrack for the love story I was witnessing. The water began to swell. Lost in their romance. It was clear to me that one mustn't settle for anything less. Yes, I want the service partner, the pioneer companion, the best friend, the lover, and...this.