Solid is as Solid does

It’s true, the standard handshake is a time-tested method of salutation and farewell, its pedigree well documented: from the Roman soldier to the Mongol pillager to the Plwigians of Rigel 7. There is the obvious physical connectedness the handshake makes possible. But what about something deeper, something a little more spiritual, but not at all new-agey? What about metaphysical connectedness?

This is what the dap or the solid handshake is all about. It bespeaks an examined life, one spent in reflection, one spent getting on the good foot and staying on it. The solid says, you’re my brother (or sister) and I recognize within you what Marcus Aurelius called “the divine fire”. It says you’re part of the team and so am I, without the messy business of everyone having to get their Player’s Club cards out of their money clips.

There comes a time in everyone’s life, when you have to be good to yourself and make that jump from Black Label to Blue Label. When you’re successful and confident, when you’re sitting at life’s banquet table and you’re not afraid to send back the garlic bread because it’s not really garlic bread, just some soggy toast with oil on it, and you want what you ordered, which is real garlic bread: crispity, with pieces of real golden carmely garlic on it. Delicious.

From the ballfield to the boardroom, those of us in the know understand life is too short for half-stepping with that straight-arm, dead-fish, phone-it-in handshake. We pull it up to about 90 degrees, look you in the eye and say, “Hey, brother, like solid…”