It’s all about the hug — in Chile and everywhere else…

I was crammed into a booth with my mom and my two daughters, and the restaurant suddenly hushed, and we looked over, and there it was on the TV above the bar: another miner climbing out of that hole and falling into the arms of his loved ones.

We were transfixed for a moment, and then we all choked up… It was a complex moment: the shock of a happy ending, the technology, the endurance, the media frenzy… but really it all came down to that moment: a guy hugging his kid, a son hugging his mom, a man hugging his woman.

The whole world over, and all that matters is the hug.

All of us in the booth, all of us in the restaurant, and likely, all over the world, everyone was in that hug: the smell of your person’s skin, the texture of your person’s shirt, the warmth of connection. Home at the end of the road, after days and days of waiting and traveling.

I remember running toward my mom off the plane from a semester abroad, so homesick and happy. Gathering up my girls as they ran at me off the playground, off the bus, home from camp… Their silky hair, the comfort of their squeeze.

That’s what makes United Planet special: the connection. The hug. The feeling that you know and love that person with the red hair and the green shirt, and that someone knows and loves you.

It’s worth the wait, the journey, the love. It’s all there is.

From The Little Prince… “To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world…”