Get a Grip! Losing one's grip on reality. The head as a hand metaphor is great and is hidden in plain sight in our language (and agree only a wacky creative mind would see this!) Our hands are indeed so integral to our existence, some days I wash them so many times, continually washing off the dirt and scrubbing that dirt under the nails. I can appreciate this idea we are all hands. When I am learning a new pattern with hoops, the grip always tightens up and tenses around the hoop, and this is like life too, tensing against the new and unknown, until it is taken in and the grip can loosen and life can flow once more.
But yours is a totally different animal. And such fun to read!! Especially the 'fifth hand' at the top. Only a wildly creative mind comes up with ideas such as this. 😅 🎉
It's nice to read about the hands being put in 'pole position' as it were. It makes a nice change from the head, where the rest of the body is considered nothing more than a gofer-machine to carry the head around (at least for academics that is).
I was 44 in the year 2000 when I quit academia, where I'd been for 15 years. Before that I worked as an engineer. You can read my story via an interview with Unbekoming here:
Get a Grip! Losing one's grip on reality. The head as a hand metaphor is great and is hidden in plain sight in our language (and agree only a wacky creative mind would see this!) Our hands are indeed so integral to our existence, some days I wash them so many times, continually washing off the dirt and scrubbing that dirt under the nails. I can appreciate this idea we are all hands. When I am learning a new pattern with hoops, the grip always tightens up and tenses around the hoop, and this is like life too, tensing against the new and unknown, until it is taken in and the grip can loosen and life can flow once more.
Yes, the loose grip! Be it a sword, hoops, drumsticks or a lover....
Wonderful post, Bertus! I thoroughly enjoyed this.
Reminds me of an earlier wordcast of mine (Cognition at our Fingertips ~ https://veronikabondsymbiopaedia.substack.com/p/cognition-at-our-fingertips) unravelled, of course, through the lens of language.
But yours is a totally different animal. And such fun to read!! Especially the 'fifth hand' at the top. Only a wildly creative mind comes up with ideas such as this. 😅 🎉
It's nice to read about the hands being put in 'pole position' as it were. It makes a nice change from the head, where the rest of the body is considered nothing more than a gofer-machine to carry the head around (at least for academics that is).
I agree. Too often it is the brain that takes the focus.
Great post, Bertus. I do love witnessing the dexterity possible with hands.
I gave up a nice academic career in the year 2000, to pursue making things with my hands. I haven't regretted it.
Well played, Joshua. I envy you. I am still locked within academia's firm grasps.
I was 44 in the year 2000 when I quit academia, where I'd been for 15 years. Before that I worked as an engineer. You can read my story via an interview with Unbekoming here:
https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/the-journey
(I haven't regretted it, by the way, life has been unexpectedly interesting, though sometimes I have the odd niggle regarding my measly pension 😀 )