Give Me a Big Hug and Pass the Pasta

Do you hug?

The reason I ask is I overheard a study being quoted on the radio about two types of people in this world -- those who hug and those who do not.

Me? I'm a hugger. I come from a long line of huggers. Being half Italian, it almost comes with the territory.

You don't just greet someone... you hug someone. I learned this very early on.

At my family reunions, you had a bowl of pasta in one arm, but still managed to envelop the person with the other. The bowl of pasta itself could become part of the hugging process, and serve as a keen reminder to the huggee to go with the flow or suffer the consequences.

Here's the kicker... the Irish side in my family was into it too. My mom was a serial hugger, in fact.

It was our family way. All living creatures got hugs. Aunts. Uncles. Grandparents. Cousins. Sisters. Brothers. Pets too. Dogs, if you could manage... turtles, if they could manage.

Huggers show no distinction, but some people don't like to hug.

Huggers don't know what to make of these people. They hug them and they back off.

I think in the case of my family, it's because our hugs suck the air out of you... so it's understandable.

But huggers know non-huggers are always free to suck the air back. Non-huggers decline.

Again, I understand. But now there's word that non-huggers are not hugging at their own risk, because non-huggers die younger.

It could be because huggers have crushed their chest cavity, but I suspect there's something more at play.

Non-huggers are afraid to open up. Huggers are more than willing to open up.

Non-huggers keep their emotions in check. Huggers wear their emotions for the whole world to check.

Non-huggers have been burned in life, so they hold back. Huggers have been burned in life too, but they're so crazy they don't hold anything back.

So they hug... and they bug, leaving non-huggers to wonder whether we huggers are onto something or just on something.

Me? I just say, "Quit looking so emotionally constipated. Give me a big hug, and pass the pasta."

Life is short. Let's go along.

Watch Neil Cavuto's Common Sense weekdays at 4 p.m. ET on Your World with Cavuto.