Bates Bubble Burst

For 6 weeks I was contained in a bubble, perhaps it was 7, but it doesn't matter because time and space was suspended, contracted and expanded at different times of the hour, day, week, month. In this bubble I lived, moved, breathed, slept, ate, drank, thought, laughed, cried, saw, smelled, heard, tasted, felt, sensed. I lived in a culture of touch, among people who were not afraid to touch and be touched, who shared the world inside themselves with those around them. These were the brave souls who broke the invisible shells that people cover themselves with in order to not be touched--physically or otherwise.