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Greetings from David Palmer
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 For the first time since I was a teenager I am living in the countryside surrounded by trees, forests, hiking trails, gardens and assorted wildlife. Barely a week goes by when I don't cross paths with a deer or two. The question as to whether I could survive outside of an urban environment for an extended period of time has been answered. Yes, I can and I love it!
Eighteen months have passed since I moved from San Francisco, California, to Storrs, Connecticut. Undoubtedly the transition has been eased by the fact that I am only a five-minute bike ride from the main campus of the University of Connecticut (25,000 students) and have access to all of its attendant amenities such as smart people, libraries, museums, visual and performing arts. Another lifeline is the recreation center within walking distance where I can be found most mornings battling the bulge.
My massage life has taken an interesting turn. For only the second time in my life I am massaging the same person almost every day -- my 92 year old mother. We start with an upper body massage in a massage chair and finish with leg massage in her recliner. That consistency has improved the quality of both our lives.
Other than that, the only other regular massage I do is a monthly trade of table massages with my friend Mary McAlister, who lives about 35 miles away. However, my interest in touch continues to expand. I am still convinced that the massage profession needs to become a profession of touch educators (related blog post).
To that end, over the past year I have been working with a large East Coast massage school that is radically revising their curriculum so that touch is front and center. They now have their new students learn chair massage in their first weeks of training before encountering naked bodies on a table. This allows them to more safely and deeply explore basic personal and cultural issues around touch and touch relationships in a less complicated environment.
The ultimate goal is to have every massage relationship framed as a touch relationship and for graduates to understand that, first and foremost, they are touch educators. It is all terribly exciting and innovative and I hope that other schools will begin similar explorations. Let me know. I am willing to help.
I am sticking close to home these days and only traveling a couple of times a year. I have my regular Fall seminar in Quebec City coming up next month, if anyone is interested in seeing me in that most European of all North American cities.
Kevin and I have started work on a new version of our online web store that will have more features and be more user-friendly than the current clunky one. If you (or a friend) would like a 10% discount on any supplies, a massage chair or our home study course, enter the code "septdisc" at checkout on the old site and we will hook you up.
In the meantime, check out the amazing article about my most favorite new word--Exterogestation--below and have a great Labor Day weekend!
In touch,
David
P.S. I do post frequently on the TouchPro Facebook page. "Like" the page to see what else I am passionate about.
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Extero-gestation and Touch
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 "Human infants ... remain helpless longer than infants of any other species and like some marsupials must also go through a distinct period of gestation outside of the womb. Although birth may be seen as a separation of mother and infant, babies need anything but separation. Nature intended that they be held on their mother’s bodies after birth until they complete their gestation out of the womb. This period of exterior gestation needs to be respected not just a sentimental matter but one that has a profound and major impact on an infant’s physical, emotional and psychological development."
This is the most comprehensive neurological, psychological, sociological and cultural case I have seen for the importance of parent/infant touch.
Check it out!
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