Touch

I've come up with a briliant plan! I'm going to do a series of posts all about the human senses, taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound.  This is the first... Touch. At its simplest, the feeling of touch happens when a sensory neuron is triggered by some stimulus and sends information to the brain which interprets the feeling for us. Eileen could probably tell us all about it. ;) The stimulus can be anything really but I'm going to look at texture. Texture.... what does something feel like? the amazing thing about the English language is that there is a gigatrillion ways to answer this question... The first picture feels soft to me, there isn't much contrast, it's white and blown out, all on purpose. It looks like something I could brush my cheek with or slide against the palm of my hand.

The picture of the paint peeling feels fragile to me. It feels weathered, whatever that feels like.
Like butter spread over too much bread. :)  (Name the movie and you can download a picture for free! Actually anyone can download any for free... so go ahead if you want. :) )  I think what I like most is the red color. That reminds me of a time I was in the honors reading room and some grown-ups came in, arguing that the new tables didn't match the old red color.  The old man was like, "Of course they don't, these are new, and that old red only comes from sitting in the sun and aging"  Some things you can only get by waiting. 

 

 These rocks are pretty much the exact opposite of the first picture, there's no way I'd be brushing these on my cheek! :)  They definitely have texture though, in fact it's full of tons of different textures. Each rock has its very own color, shape, and texture... each is unique no matter how similar they might seem at first glance.  
I like this yellow picture because it feels yellow.  I guess colors don't really "feel" like anything, at least there would be no way to distinguish them using touch alone... but when you add the human element and emotion, colors can totally change how something feels... don't you think?
All in all, I'm pretty thankful for touch, if one of the reasons we were put on Earth is so we can experience being human, I can't imagine doing it without touch. Can you imagine living life as if you were numb...? like right after the dentist! There is way too many things to touch! like feathers, rocks, hands, water, cookie dough... everything.