The following is contributed by Sensei Jerry Roy:

Handshake.

My daughter and I attended a function recently and quite by accident
the host reached over and shook my daughter's hand before shaking
my hand. As we walked away, my daughter told me that the host squeezed
hard on her fingers. I immediately realized an episode of "Aikido
in Daily Life." I told my daughter that her fingers were squeezed
because she was passive, caught by surprise, and did not extend
her hand into the host's grip. He grabbed her fingers instead of
her palm and squeezed before he realized what he was doing. In
Aikido, we are taught to enter into our partner's attack. By doing
so we begin to exercise control over the attack and hopefully prevent
injury. Likewise, when someone want to shake our hand, we should thrust
our hand into the grip so that we can have some control. To be
tentative, to hesitate, to do otherwise means our finger get squeezed. Ouch!