By Charles Leyman Kachitsa
What does it mean to have no human contact? Since time immemorial as has never been experienced by current generation, our present circumstance requires that there be no haphazard physical contact amongst people.
Going back in history, the Bible has some similar instances where a plague required that the affected be quarantined from society and live separate in designated locations without any contact from other people. in some cultures up to present day human contract between people is restricted to sexual partners or when one is receiving medical treatment or adventurously on fully packed public transport. Another exception would be smaller children who may be touched as they are being taken care of. In western culture where touching of each other for adults is or should we say was rampant, unnecessary physical touching of children who are not yours is totally discouraged.
Again historically in such institutions as churches, some up to now, human physical contact especially of opposite sexes on their premises was discouraged with in most of these arrangements for men and women to sit in distinctive areas separate from each other. Understandably this is the case for Muslims in mosques.
Looking at modern Pentecostal churches, it appears it progressively perhaps subconsciously in the name of brotherhood and sisterhood, seemed to have encouraged more physical human contact even for opposite sexes of people who are not in any relationship including perhaps inadvertently for those engaged with others not necessarily their partners.
Whether the practice of haphazard physical human contact such as hugging in public places of gathering is right or not without touching on any morals or ethics, I do not want to pronounce any personal judgement. Suffice to say the current situation is a wake-up call for us to re-examine such practices. It now looking at past video recordings of people practising it very foreign and one wonders if ever we will go back to it.
For public places I have settled for the familiar to me but I know there are other places for example night dance halls where there seemed or seems to be absence of human physical contact ground rules.