Robin's Strange Collection

Last night I collected a handshake. I hadn't collected one in a long time and had nearly forgotten all about finding new ones.

Many years ago I heard Orson Welles on some talk show saying that his mother had shaken hands with Lincoln. Of course, she hadn't actually met Lincoln, but in a six-degrees of separation sort of way, she had shaken someone's hand who had shaken someone's hand who had met Lincoln. I was really struck by the idea of touching someone who I could never actually meet, and I've been collecting handshakes ever since.

One of my favorite handshake moments came when I met the then Chancellor of UC Santa Cruz MRC Greenwood. The Chancellor regularly convened quarterly meetings with the media students (those who published the campus newspapers or put together the radio news), and I as their new adviser had asked if I could attend. I explained that I thought I should attend to get a feel for how these meetings were conducted, so when I had a new crop of students I could more adequately advise them how to prepare for them. That's what I said on the outside. On the inside I was thinking, I want to shake this woman's hand.

Greenwood had held an appointment as associate director for science at the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President of the United States. She had worked with Clinton and Gore, and I wanted their handshakes, but I also wanted all the other hands that came with them: Nelson Mandela, Anwar Sadat, Yitzak Rabin, John F. Kennedy, even Marilyn Monroe!

So I attended the meeting. In my usual awkward fashion, I got right up next to the Chancellor with my hand outstretched. "How nice to meet you. Thank you so much for letting me come." She smiled at me. I imagined she must have been thinking, "Who is this weird unknown campus employee? No wonder the students put out such anarchic crap," but shook my hand vigorously.

Yes. I scored.

Later that day I emailed Chancellor Greenwood. I shared my handshaking exploits and thanked her for who she had given to me. I also wrote that I had just shared with her some of the luminaries of the beat generation and rock royalty and icons of political activism of the 60s: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg (that was a direct shake) Ken Kesey (also direct), Neal Cassady, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Abbie Hoffman (direct) etc. This handshaking was a two-way street! My email must have confirmed her suspicions about my lunacy. She never wrote me back.

Last night at dinner our lovely hosts were telling stories about their days in Santa Fe. V said how she had once worked at a hospital and had attended to Georgia O'Keeffe. My hand shot across the table. I said, "Georgia O'Keeffe! Please let me shake your hand."

A whole new world had just opened up.