“Keeping the human touch”

I came across the line “keeping the human touch” in my graduate readings of Christine Grosse ( Business Communications Quarterly, 2002 ). It reminds me of one of my weekly highlites, when I catch the first ferry off Gabriola Island (5:25 am), to start the week with drawing coffeeshop people at Tim Hortons. It takes me about 2 hrs to do 3 pages, and some 8 months to fill a sketchbook. I’m 400 pages into Volume 16. That’s a lot of people. Sometimes drawing becomes an engaging conversation with someone. That’s a big reminder that life is about “keeping the human touch.” Then it’s off to Starbucks to begin more readings for the week. Being an at-home studio artist and student, I need the break, right? A fellow cohort member gave me a custom-made Tshirt that says “get your own metatheory.” It was a running joke between the two of us. A savoury moment of human fellowship amidst the rigours of academic study. I had bought him and “official” university coffee mug to concede the contest. He’d won with the puns and ironies. Life can be good especially when you touch someone – for real.