Advice on the Sign of Peace

A couple weeks ago I attended a daily mass in a Manhattan church. Pretty big church, people spread out, but enough people present so that everyone was just a couple pews from everyone else, at most. At the Sign of Peace, many people just stood in place and gave a polite wave. Often they were just a few feet from one another, but they wouldn’t reach out their hand. Have you had this experience? I’m guessing that you have, whether as a member of a congregation or as a priest watching a congregation during the Sign of Peace. I’m thinking of writing a little article about it, and talking about the value of shaking off the inertia and actually shaking hands with people you don’t know. How do you feel about the hand wave? Any thoughts or personal reflections on the Sign of Peace? Jim McDermott, SJ