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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gatech!spaf
From: spaf@gatech.UUCP (Gene Spafford)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Living Together Without Sex (hugs)
Message-ID: <11414@gatech.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 20-Dec-84 11:57:13 EST
Article-I.D.: gatech.11414
Posted: Thu Dec 20 11:57:13 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Dec-84 01:15:56 EST
References: <284@mhuxm.UUCP> <1897@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: spaf@gatech.UUCP (Gene Spafford)
Organization: The Clouds Project, School of ICS, Georgia Tech
Lines: 37

Here's another vote for hugs.  My SO just returned from a two week business
trip.  The first thing we did upon seeing each other at the airport
was not rip each other's clothes off and pull each other to the floor
(that was later :-), but we hugged for about 2 or 3 minutes.

To us, a hug is a statement of being close, of being friends, of being
glad to be in each other's company (and arms).   Some people aren't
comfortable with hugs, for whatever reasons.  I feel sorry for them.
A smile can be faked, and you can always kiss (or more) with no sincere
feeling behind it, but a prolonged, non-aggressive hug is hard to
fake comfortably.  And it speaks volumes.

Kathy (my SO) says:
   "You know how you fantasize about how a reunion is going to be?  How
   you run across a field, arms wide, to embrace and put the other
   person in a lip lock?  Well, that would have been nice, but when I saw
   you all I wanted to do was give you a big hug."

Hugs can be given in public, in front of parents and little kids, when
you're old and infirm, and you never have to worry about getting
pregnant from one.  Not only that, I can hug hundreds of times a
night (with the right woman)!

Now I've forgotten what I wanted to conclude about all this.  Oh well,
let me just close by stating that I've tried sex without living
together, and I don't think that switching to living together without
sex is in any way a positive progression.  Let me recommend to anyone
thinking about it that you don't try sex without loving together.
That's the proper combination.

Many hugs to y'all in 1985,

-- 
Gene "7 months and counting" Spafford
The Clouds Project, School of ICS, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet:	Spaf @ GATech		ARPA:	Spaf%GATech.CSNet @ CSNet-Relay.ARPA
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