🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <9201011853.AA00524@sparkle.la.tis.com> gds@LA.TIS.COM (Greg Skinner) writes:
>>For $35 you can get 1 hour of a really good full body massage.  No
>>friendship is required and you don't even have to say "Thank you".
>True, but is it the same as receiving a backrub from an intimate
>friend or lover?  

Unless your "intimate friend" is a professional masseur, it's probably a lot
better.  It's a rare "intimate friend" who can go on rubbing oil into your
feet for one whole hour.  

>It might make you feel just as physically good,

"Just as good," Gregbo?  You must have not had an hour of competent
professional massage in a while if you are unclear on this point. 

>but would you feel as emotionally good?

Better.  Much better.  There is a lot of difference between massage as a
form of foreplay or petting and massage as a means of relaxation.  If I am
looking for the latter, I pay a professional whose fingers can handle an 
hour of working the tension out of my muscles.

>What's "normal"?

"Normal" are people who are happy, comfortable with themselves and people
around them, are able to give and receive affection and friendship.  Viewing
backrubs as a legitimate seduction technique is not abnormal.  Believing
that backrubs are useful *only* as a means of seduction or ingratiating a
potential "intimate friend" is abnormal.  Or immature.  Take your pick.  At
some point immaturity becomes an abnormality.

>I think everyone is different and have different levels of comfort
>when it comes to allowing people to get close to them, touch them, etc.

Yes, some people are "normal" and have no problems being emotionally or
physically close to other human beings.  And some people can't deal with 
emotional or physical contact and are "abnormal."  

>Same goes for getting closer to others; some people are more shy, etc.

We already had that flame war, Greg.  Let's not start it again.
-- 
Oleg Kiselev, at home			....use the header to find the path