Whatever contract is being established there will be some kind of contact. What is just as true, is that a contact automatically shapes a contract.

Contact and contract belong to elements that fuel one another as well as transform one another.

We can define what contact is, for example by describing it as a simple interaction, maybe even a check box one has to click.

We can define what a contract is by using something as simple as a handshake given upon meeting someone else. And given the recent passage of a pandemic it might only be a distant hello for some, while others may continue to kiss or hug. This simple ritual also is a contract as it creates a prospect of the type of meeting those involved will have.

What contact is and what a contract is lies with those defining it. But once a definition is established, reflecting on how our ideas of what contact and a contract influence one another we can see the set definitions start to change.

It makes a process visible.

And maybe also that it cannot be hastened without one side taking power over the other. Which inevitably also establishes the desire to stay in control and keep the emerging power at a distance.

It seems that contact determines the experience of power whereas the emerging contract will make the distribution of power and control visible.