He sat with his arms folded across his chest, his hands gripping his triceps. And then when he stood, he quickly returned to that same posture.
To walk across the room, however, he had to unclench, and when he got to the other side, he stood next to a friend he hadn’t spoken to in a decade, and then his arms flung open for the hug, and for the next thirty minutes, he no longer felt the need to tighten.
When he walked home, he wanted more of that freedom from clenching, from pulling down, from walling himself off. He wondered how far away was that land where he no longer felt the need to defend himself.
