If I can make a girl's day by hugging her, hell yeah, I'll hug the crap out of her.
Hugging is not my shtick.
I wasn't like other boys. At any rate, I wasn't like my three elder brothers: they excelled at football and they were like other boys, going up to bed each night hugging annuals filled with stories about the glories of Pele and Danny McGrain.
Many parents know that hugging your children - telling them how amazing they are - is so important. Some parents, through no fault of their own, don't realise this. My mum was one of those who didn't realise, and I almost was too.
I never like being touched, ever. People used to say I held my breath when they were hugging me. I still do.
If you are wearing the right jersey, people rallying in around you, and hugging each other when you win, and there's so much love and excitement when you're together. And then people seem to walk away, take their jerseys off, and start focusing on the color of your skin. It didn't matter for that couple hours at the game - why does it matter now?
I see a really good tag on a building, a man passed out in the middle of the street, a couple hugging, a cop arresting a panhandler. I'm interested in how all these things are happening in one block.
I looked in the audience. There were no strangers. Everybody was singing and cheering and hugging. That was a beautiful picture to look at.
Women know when a man touches them inappropriately. Hugging one man doesn't mean it is an invitation. Wearing nail polish isn't an invitation.
There wasn't a lot of physical tenderness with my parents. There was plenty of love but we weren't into the hugging thing, which now I've totally reversed with my family to the point where it probably drives them crazy.
