#974 High tens

Neil Pasricha

Booming double palm-on-palm smack

High fives are good. High tens are great.

Picture it — jaw dropping in slow-motion silence, eyebrows furrowing in mock-angry rage, head slowly wagging side to side, both hands lifting high up top, waiting a brief moment for your friend to answer your call and deliver a booming double palm-on-palm SMACK.

Now that’s a beautiful picture. That’s the happy dial turned to 10. That’s a good day giving birth to a great one. That’s a photo from Appendix A of The Study of The Best Things Ever. Lady, I don’t know who you are, where you live, or what you’re all about. But I know that you gotta love that beautifully loud high ten and its satisfying twenty-finger crack. It’s just explosive.

Like I said, the high five is good, too. But really, almost anyone can deliver a high five. It’s just one hand! Once you start tenning, the five starts to look wrong, incomplete, and unfinished. It becomes a half, a partial, a sort of, like a flop with no flip, yang with no yin, pong with no ping, or a unicycle.

But the high ten! Sugar, let’s talk about that high ten. Now that’s the celebratory hand-on-hand gesture for you and me. See, the high ten takes guts for two big reasons:

  1. First off, higher chance of looking stupid: You throw a high five up there and no one answers it, no problem. You just put your hand nonchalantly back in your pocket, scratch your head, or swipe it through the side of your hair, Fonzie-style. No one notices you covered it up and all is well. But you throw a high ten up there and you get left hanging? Well now you just look foolish — like you’re trying to get the wave started at your kid’s T-ball game or just airing out your pits.
  2. Also, there’s more coordination required: Think about it, during a high five all eyes are on that one hand. With four eyes focused on one slap, there’s not too much that can go wrong. Yes, there’s the awkward pinky-on-pinky slap, but those really don’t happen too much. Now, the high ten’s a different animal. This time each person has to focus on two slaps. Time them right. Aim them precisely. Smack them hard. You can’t just high ten perfectly the first time. It is very difficult and requires a lot of practice.

However, the good news is that once you work up the nerve to pull off the high ten, it can be a very rewarding slap. So give it a shot. Test it out. See what it’s all about. And hey, maybe even try laying a thundering double palm-on-palm SMACK on one of your closest friends…today! Then maybe go out for beers or something. Wings too, if no one’s eaten.

AWESOME!

Up high

14 thoughts to “#974 High tens”

  1. My year-old niece has just learned to high-five. Not a high-ten yet, but she’s little, so it’s still awesome.

    Little things are always awesome…

  2. I don’t see anyone giving high fives in public, let alone high tens. Me and my best friend don’t care. If something deserves to be acknoledged through a high ten, we will do it. We always meet above our heads and then bring out hands around. Its hard to explain without you seeing it.

  3. Tried to get a little boy to do a high-ten the other day at work. He was showing off his high-fives to everyone, would do it with either hand. I held both hands out to him and he hit one hand then the other.

  4. I needed my car repaired, a local said, “Go figure at Land Rover, Richmond.” The sounds were frightening, so I called before hitting the road with family aboard, said urgently need to speak with service tech! Over the phone a gentleman basically diagnosed, said common and easy fix; assured we were safe to drive. Upon arrival I was denied my truth in a full blown debate, told they NEVER let anyone speak to a mechanic direct, no vehicle could be diagnosed from a sound, (you know like the good old days when we relied on our resourcefulness and a stethoscope told a doctor much!) They said all the mechanics on staff denied. And so I said, I do suppose then I spoke to spirit world ghost mechanic! After a 20 minute debate, “and such”, my angel appeared on the scene, late for work but right on time for me…his name, MIchael, and he had the integrity of an earth angel, confimed everything…and I got my car repaired for FAR less than the others were pushing hard for! So then what did I do? To validation, justice and integrity; truth movement- To honest mechanics- To honest people…to the Michael’s of the world~High five, high ten, up high!
    AWESOME!

  5. My instructor gives everyone a high ten at the end of my kick-boxing class! This is only week 3 for me and the class is killing me, but that high-ten at the end is sweet!

  6. I still need to practice hitting good, solid high-fives. The high-ten seems a bit advanced for me. I hope someday I shall be worthy of this noble art.

  7. I’ve been watching the Olympics the last couple of days. High tens are flying everywhere!!!

  9. It sounds like you are making problems your self by looking to solve this situation rather of looking at why their is often a problem in the first place

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