Hands

Hands can tell you a lot about a person. Hands fascinate me. The calluses, the scars, the shapes of the fingers and the nails, each can kinda tell a story.

Some people (including me) talk with their hands. Actually, a whole lot of people do. It's fascinating to watch their hands shape their meaning in the air, to watch them paint words on silence. Sign language fascinates me for that very reason.

Calluses can say a lot too- do they do a lot of hard work that requires hands? Do they do a lot of lifting? Or do they live a softer life, one where smooth hands are normal? I think more people have softer hands these days. It's also possible that they play an instrument- guitar especially creates callused fingertips.

Fingernails- bitten to the nub? Trimmed short or left long?

I especially love to watch people play the piano. This, I think, truly can communicate part of who the person is. I recently attended a piano recital for my siblings, and that's actually the event that inspired this post. I saw a lot of people play at the recital. Some, like my sister, play as if they're afraid of the piano. So delicately that sometimes the sound is hardly perceptible. Some play simply gently, with the music, letting it really flow.Some, like my brother, play boldly, like the music is intrinsic to their being, like the notes, the chords, the sound, like the piano is proof of their being alive. Like the music is proof they exist, an affirmation of a life being lived. Either way, the fingers dance over the keys and the hands illustrate a part of the person attached.

Hands tell brilliant stories.