At Arms End

At Arms' End

Language is rich with references to ‘hands’ either as a noun or a verb. Many of the most recognisable sayings, quotations and quotations contain the word ‘hand or hands.  So, I thought how do I write about something that contains endless potential for the writer, the poet?  Do I philosophise on the many semantics that the word ‘hand’ finds itself in? Or write a fictional piece that contains good, evil or even apathy to mankind? The best place to start and to end is with myself so here goes…

My handwriting is truly awful and the advent of the word processor was truly a liberating and expansive step forward for me.  No, I am not walking on my hands, but even Neil Armstrong would have fallen out of Apollo 11 and maybe even uttered ‘bugger’ as he descended in a clumsy fashion to the Lunar Surface.  One small step could not have happened that day, but for the firm guiding grip of his hands and their incorporated digits!   I marvel at beautiful handwriting, paintings, sculptures and even a beautifully arranged vase of flowers.  Yet these wonderfully versatile things would hang idlily at my side if it were not for the command module called my brain.  All the aspects of creation within me hand on a complex neurological sequence that is so complex scientists are still discovering new things to hypothesise about regarding the relationships between the afore mentioned brain and the senses that go ‘hand in hand’ (pun intended!)  with many actions.

Way back at the turn of the Millennium I was on one of my many teaching practices and hilariously I was to teach handwriting to a group of children.  Even my loving wife fell about laughing when I informed her of what lay ahead, but against all adversity I triumphed.  My Everest was when the class teacher entered the classroom and surveyed my efforts with awe and wonder.  How? My handwriting as I’ve said is really poor and the faster, I try to write the more illegible it becomes.  So how did I perform such a ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ transformation?  Well if you’ve ever heard of fine motor and gross motor you will understand how I did it.  For some reason my control and coordination using my shoulders and elbows far exceeds the ability and dexterity of my wrists, and fingers.  I suspect also that a degree of dyspraxia exists in my physical/mental makeup. I would be lost without the far extremities on the ends of my arms, but they in turn would be lost without the rest of me.