Halcyon and his 94-year old Grandpa Caleb do a weekly “HugNation” webcam thingy and in honor of Valentine’s Day today they are spreading the good word of hugs through the huggable campaign.
The backstory from Halcyon:
A 13 year old girl sent me a message on MySpace. She was a regular participant in HugNation, and needed advice.
Her school had just outlawed hugging. She (and her parents) felt it was an excessively harsh response to the fear of inappropriate touching.
“There are 1000’s of things children need to be protected from,” her mom said, “Hugging is not one of them.”
So we brainstormed via email some course of action. We agreed that hugging someone against their will, or hugging inappropriately was not cool. So we decided that we should figure out some symbol that means, “I believe in the power of touch. And within appropriate context, I am open to a platonic embrace.â€
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