Times have changed, folks. They certainly have. There was an era when we knew our neighbors, when the local butcher remembered how you liked your steaks cut, when a handshake was as good as a signed contract – but those days seem to have up and vanished like the Schenectady fog on a sunny morning.
I go back and forth to Price Chopper nowadays – armed with my mask and sanitizer, mind you. What do I see? Rows upon rows of people not talking, but scrolling endlessly on their devices. It’s a sight that riles me, a fifty-year-old lifelong resident of Schenectady, NY, not because I don’t embrace new technology or change, but because we’re slowly forgetting the value of personal, human connections. All this touchless society has does is make us more… well, touchless.
There’s a hidden treasure in the simple act of a handshake, one that I feel has been overlooked in today’s age of digital minimal contact. To the untrained eye, it seems just like a polite gesture. But I’ve always seen it as something more profound. A silent vow made in open exchange – an unspoken promise of trust and respect. But well, that’s the perspective of old man Brian McCarthy, who genuinely believed in the saying, “my word is my bond.”
Whenever I walked around Union College during my younger years, every opportunity to give a firm handshake to a professor or a fellow student was also an opportunity to establish an immediate rapport. A handshake was more than simply a polite formality; it was a bridge that transcended the spoken language and touched the purest form of communication.
My father (God rest his soul) was a man of few words but a powerful handshake. I remember him brokering deals over at the old Van Vranken Hardware store, scribbling numbers on small scraps of paper and sealing everything with a firm handshake. No fancy documentation, no legal mumbo-jumbo. Just two men, a promise, and a handshake. Those deals held higher standing than any legally binding paper you might sign today.
Remember the handshake shared between politicians back in the day? Two world powers would come to blows on the global front, but if they managed to reach some personal agreement, it was made apparent with a public handshake – the world’s most crucial truces and deals sealed with a simple act that conveyed trust and integrity. A handshake was an emblem of peace and mutual understanding, the binding force that was expected to withstand the trials of political maelstroms.
I’ve seen this town evolve and witnessed handshake slowly but surely get replaced by soulless contracts. Now, I understand the necessity for precautions. We live in different times. There’s an added layer of legal security that comes with written agreements and digital transactions. But, the sanctity that a handshake held, the trust that it built, that was priceless.
I fear that, just like the classic handshake, we are fast abandoning the intrinsic value of human interaction – replacing it with impersonal emails and one-dimensional emojis. The entire fabric of human connections seems to be going through a not-so-subtle shift, and the consequences are hard to predict at this point.
We’ve faced quite a few adversaries in this proud town. From the stifling heat waves in the 60s to the relentless recession of the 80s, and now, this tiresome pandemic. We’ve weathered every storm standing together making countless silent promises through clasped hands. And, let’s not forget the blizzard back in ’77 where we dug ourselves out with little more than neighborliness, tenacity, and a knowing, encouraging handshake exchanged over a borrowed shovel.
The world is more technologically connected than ever before, but it feels we are growing more emotionally disconnected. And it all starts by missing something as simple and sincere as a handshake, as this old Schenectadian sees it.
We stand here now, in the midst of an era where safety comes first, where the simple act of a handshake is governed by the fear of an invisible virus. A handshake carries risks today. But then, who can argue with safety?
Still, it compels me to ponder on what we’ve lost and what we stand to lose further. As we retreat each day deeper into the digital and physical isolation, I can’t help but yearn for the simpler times where trust and connection could be communicated through the simple act of a handshake.
But that’s just me, Brian McCarthy, longing for a touch of the past while we hurtle toward a touchless future.
