Handshaking: do you do it or do you not?
‘Give a hand’, I think my mother has repeated this sentence a trillion times while I was being raised. Being the good child I was, I did it neatly. I suspect that there is now a large group of children in our country who don’t understand it anymore, because suddenly Rutte says it’s not allowed anymore (even though he had to get used to it himself). I know it, because I have never felt so awkward at a car dealer as I did yesterday.
It’s not allowed by Rutte
Shaking hands when seeing someone again is like washing your hands with Unicura after peeing (haha), scanning your bonus card at the Appie around the corner, and the guarantee of smoked sausage with a stamppot. It belongs. But still, we’re not doing it for a moment. I had to go to my dealer for a new car (hybrid, mind you) and I was thinking the whole time during the speed check on the A2 about how to avoid a handshake. Do you say it to the person in question, do you just wave a bit half-heartedly, or do you accidentally do it out of politeness anyway? Now my car salesman came in with his hands in his pockets and sprinted to the coffee machine while I was already sitting, so that was a relief, but when leaving I started to act a bit strange. I shouted something like: ‘It’s not allowed anymore by Rutte’, laughed a bit, waved awkwardly, and left. While I grabbed the doorknob that surely more people touched that morning than the hand of the car salesman… Food for thought and food for my hygienic gel.
The panic spreader
Are you doing it or not? I believe that our prime minister isn’t asking us for anything unnecessary, so I’m avoiding that handshake out of precaution. Not because I’m afraid of getting COVID-19, maybe even more because I’m afraid of passing it on. But still, I felt a little bit like the panic spreader for not doing it. Until I told someone at yet another appointment that I was just following Rutte’s advice and she almost exclaimed with relief that she understood it. Actually, I see that especially in my field research. A kind of silly relief when someone doesn’t make any moves to shake hands. And if you ever feel the urge to be rude, I think this corona time is a very suitable moment.
Never seen something so silly
Fine, we’re not shaking hands anymore, but can I make one request? Let the elbow greeting and foot tapping also just be left out. I have rarely seen something so silly and possibly even more embarrassing than this alternative. Tapping feet in high heels is dangerous anyway, and how do you tap each other with the elbow without ending up in an awkward entanglement? Also dangerous. If you run into me: just raise that hand in the air and wave very hard, it doesn’t look silly but is very nice.
