Touching is Too Close

As a massage therapist, you get to experience all kinds of quirks in human nature. Today I experienced one of my favorites. Favorite Human Quirk #11 occurs when you have a person on the massage table (face up, face down, doesn't matter) and you touch their arm with your arm/side of your leg/any body part belonging to you and they apologize and move their arm. ?! If I have my elbow in your gluts whats your hand against my forearm? This is a massage. The entire point is that we make physical contact. In fact, you are paying for it. People seem to be very uncomfortable with any amount of contact that goes beyond what was laid out in the massage plan.
I understand that many folks are probably just trying to avoid the situation wherein I think I am being violated, and I totally appreciate that! But it still makes me laugh. I spend at least an hour treading circles around that table in order to my job and if I run into your hand along the way, that's what it is. I will use my legs to bolster an arm if need be, but as my leg is not my hand it is as though some rule has been broken. It makes me smile every time.
While we are at it....Favorite Human Quirk # 9: The Adult Grasp Reflex. I have found that quite a few adults seem to have retained the infant grasp reflex. The one where a baby will close its hand if its palm is touched. Technically, this reflex is supposed to subside after a few months. But I have found people who will close their hands around mine, just for a second, if I begin massaging their hands while they are chatting about something else. They will be explaining some injury to me, or what their kid did last night, all the while gently clasping my fingers. It is easy enough to work free of this, but it too always makes me smile because I truly do not believe they know they have done it. So many possible explanations for this but apparently we respond favorably to touch at all ages. Who knew?