Handshake

But quite a lot can be said, or left unsaid, in a handshake. I have watched Sepp Blatter offer a peremptory hand for someone to shake. To others he has offered a casual hand, unaccompanied by a glance. These gestures mean nothing, except as a means of dismissing the other person as of no account, They convey all the dignity of footballers going through the formalities at the start of a game, greeting their opponents with no interest at all. A genune handshake, accompanie by a gracious look, is something else. It conveys a meaning  that words cannot: admiration, appreciation, recognition, and yes, even apology. Mr Blatter was not surely asking for footballers to exchangec cursory handshakes as gestures of  casual greeting. A proper handshake is enough to seal a strong and warm basis for friendship, which is surely what he intended in his recent misunderstood comment. Thus a fragile relationship is being renewed on a quite different footing from anything that may have been the case before. The handshae which offers this message does not even have to be the double grip, so often  noted as between clergy and their flock, or business people. Not does it have to be coupled with a hug, which prevents eye-contact. I cannot see any better way to create or restore a good relationship between people than a proper handshake. Not the artificial ten-second job favored by politicians for media photographers, but the five-second, face to face, act of genuine communication that says all that needs to be said.