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Robert Like (3)
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I am going to make a comment about touching for a moment, because along with my comments about love…It would be nice if everyone loves each other but frankly, I'll also be happy if people necessarily don't like each other but still respect and do good professional and good humanistic care. I'm also happy with that.
What does touching mean, and what does it mean, for example, in the context of caring for someone from an orthodox Jewish tradition or Islamic tradition? Where and how do you find out when it's OK and not OK to touch across gender lines? About smiling, for example, although fairly universal, I've had colleagues who will say that some folks from Eastern European countries, who are older, they may see smiling as a form of disrespect or not taking things seriously. So this whole issue of how we greet each other and how we connect, and how we say goodbye…. there is a lot to be done here.