HOLDING HANDS IN A CHICAGO SUMMER

Chicago summers mean no more gloves. So what better to do with our hands than hold onto other hands? If you look around, you can see this going on all over town....!

But be advised, hand-holding is not simply some one-size-fits-all habit. It's an art. If you're going to study it properly, you need to consider the art in all its exquisite forms. Particularly in how these forms range all the way from automatic to ecstatic.

Take the young lovers strolling Michigan Avenue or city parks this August. They're holding hands mainly because they're two wanting to become one. The touch may be light, but the bond is strong. You see, not all passions have to flame; sometimes they simply warm. A little more hand-holding like this might actually warm a world frozen by too much power and greed.

Notice, though, old lovers hold hands too. Perhaps more tightly, for their love has ripened from desire into dependence. And yet a good kind of dependence. Tested by time, their love has learned that our culture's pride in individualism often yields much better results in collectivism. Nothing wrong, cowboy, with learning to depend on someone or something else out there on the range.

Of course, the way parents hold their children's hands is this art taken to one of its most sublime forms. Little fingers tucked inside the strong squeeze of a father or the soft protection of a mother are being led into a future that's not theirs alone. For just as these parents hold these lives today, so will these lives emerge as the citizens of tomorrow. No nation is any greater than its next generation, so watch this particular form of hand-holding this summer. It's got destiny written all over it.

Oh and then there are the hands of those six Marine together hoisting the flag over Iwo Jima in bloody 1945. But if you visit the celebrated monument in Washington DC you will find 13 not 12 hands. When asked, the sculptor explained the extra hand was the hand of God. (Ask any WWII GI for details).

So here's a fine summertime idea for Chicagoans that's actually good all year round. Grab someone's hands that count in your life, and try not to let go. The more hands that hold other hands, the more likely this city and this country get to where they're going...!