10. Hands

I spent yesterday afternoon with Helen at the Rodin Museum. One of the things that struck me about Rodin is the way he sculpted hands. Even though he used bronze and plaster and marble, he still managed to create life-like hands with veins and wrinkles. They are beautiful. His sculpted hands got me thinking about my own. What they look like, what they do, how important they are.

My hands are fairly smooth. They're just beginning to show some of that elephant wrinkling at the knuckles but, otherwise, they still look young. I have long fingers--the kind that would be great for playing the piano, except that I never learned how. I've been a serious nail-biter my whole life--at this point, a combination of nerves and habit. Recently, I've been trying to kick that little obsession. I bought this yucky tasting polish that supposedly helps nails grow and keeps you from biting. We'll see. The skin on my hands is fairly pale and so you can see the thin blue rivulets of veins trailing over the tops and on the palms. On my right palm, near the bottom is a lone freckle. Life lines run from side-to-side, from corner to corner, up and down, intersecting and colliding. My fingerprints are each unique labyrinthine swirls. 

Over the years, my hands have helped to push me to a crawl and then into an upright stance. My hand held the pencil for my first scribbled alphabet. My hands held onto the handlebars and didn't let go. They worked on my first art project and have never stopped creating. My hand waved goodbye as my parents drove away after dropping me at college. My hands helped to hug away my friends' hurt after break-ups and family tragedies. They typed my first resume and reached out to take my diploma. My hand made the sign of the cross as I got married. It also covered the sounds of my sobs as I walked away from my husband. And these days, my hands have been doing a lot of typing, a lot of writing, a lot of holding the camera. A lot of work. 

What do your hands look like? Are they smooth and pale like porcelain? Or are they rough and full of character? Remember that your hands do a lot for you in a day, a month, a year, a life. Try to trace your history through what your hands have done. It's amazing to see it on paper. Be kind to them--lotion, sunblock, massages, manicures. Because, in a way, you really do hold your history in the palm of your hand.