"My hands have been kind to me. I hope I learn not to take them for granted."
If I contemplate these broken and beat up meat hooks I have, I'd say they done an enormous amount of work over this lifetime (they have certainly been cut and scraped and bruised enough) so yes, I'd like to keep them. Along with the other assorted body parts. (I took on-board the hand hypothesis somewhere back there and I assumed it was presumptively true, and so far the evidence has born that out.)
"This seems like a good time to admit that I have never before liked gardening."
I like it, although not so much on this property. Very handy to have fresh herbs for everything and roses to go along with it.) What tends to suck is 'ranching' at least in the south western sun. Man, repairing barbed wire in the summer sucks.
"Northern Plains people, though, it’s all out in front for us. No secrets where I’m from. Fistfights and open hatred and telling someone straight out you want to fuck."
I expect the 'Five Civilised Tribes' are much the same way.
Oct 3, 2022·edited Oct 3, 2022Liked by Antonia Malchik
Maybe the best metaphors are ones that come to *you* spontaneously, emerging as an immediate response to some embodied experience in the moment, not "How do I force this situation to fit the metaphor that seems to fit this situation the most perfectly," or overapplying a trite recycled metaphor that has grown detached from the original circumstances that first inspired it. Something you never thought of in that way before, but now suddenly makes perfect sense, which in turn allows something even bigger to suddenly make sense. "A metaphor is two disparate experiences of very different quality and scale that magically collide in the universe, not because they have to but because they can." "A metaphor is just a definition on acid." Which is the real metaphor here?
"It's a whole-body thing: my feet in their wandering practice a love for the world; most of what my hands do is about a love for human beings, for all our flaws and failings." What a neat way to put it. I've always felt like the feet, hands and head are the three key antennae of our body (perhaps for people without hands or feet this shifts elsewhere).
I wasn't familiar with Frank Wilson's book, but I'm surprised you didn't mention the one by Raymond Tallis, a philosopher who never fails to say interesting things:
I love this. I want to work with my hands more...without sitting so much. I am seriously pondering how this can work. I year ago I started journaling by hand and I love it, but it also became just another sitting activity. And standing is also not moving! I took a doll making course and loved it. But again, sitting. I have decided my meditations need to be moving, mostly anyway. But I would like to get back to drawing and writing and move more.
One thing I try to do every day is put lotion on my hands and feet and do it in a way that is expressing my gratitude to my hands and feet. Like really caring for them. It’s such a small thing.
Thank you as always, Nia, and for the reading suggestions. First up for obvious reasons for me to peruse is the one on forensic science. Such scientists who work with organizations such as Physicians for Human Rights are heroic.
"They write, too, and occasionally play music. I forget that sometimes."
Last night, I stumbled across some files on my computer that I had managed to recover from a dead hard drive years ago and never reviewed or organized. Found some audio doodles and composition sketch recordings I had made with much fear and self-loathing. Thought to myself, "Wow, I used to do that. And, it actually sounds pretty good."
First, I love the aspen grove photograph. It reminds me of the grove behind the Métis cemetery we visited in Teton Canyon up above Choteau.
In that Movement Matters book I mentioned a few weeks ago, that I know you have now too, she talks specifically about this kind of thing, and even uses berry picking as an example. All these movements – the picking, the harvesting, the shucking and shelling, the cleaning, the preparing – comprise various series of movements that used to be part of our non-sedentary lives that we have drifted away from, and to our detriment. Movement of any meaningful, purposeful nature stimulates the brain, doesn't it? Then there are the people who describe their desire to "do something with their hands" for work as opposed to just mouse clicks and finger taps. I know I feel that! I think it's a lack many of us feel maybe without even being able to articulate it.
Additionally, this book that I indulged myself in ordering a couple weeks ago arrived in the mail earlier this week. It's gorgeous.
[very late, not at all on time]
"My hands have been kind to me. I hope I learn not to take them for granted."
If I contemplate these broken and beat up meat hooks I have, I'd say they done an enormous amount of work over this lifetime (they have certainly been cut and scraped and bruised enough) so yes, I'd like to keep them. Along with the other assorted body parts. (I took on-board the hand hypothesis somewhere back there and I assumed it was presumptively true, and so far the evidence has born that out.)
"This seems like a good time to admit that I have never before liked gardening."
I like it, although not so much on this property. Very handy to have fresh herbs for everything and roses to go along with it.) What tends to suck is 'ranching' at least in the south western sun. Man, repairing barbed wire in the summer sucks.
Also, because I forgot at the time - you linked this story back there: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/04/05/featherweight ... and this sentence landed:
"Northern Plains people, though, it’s all out in front for us. No secrets where I’m from. Fistfights and open hatred and telling someone straight out you want to fuck."
I expect the 'Five Civilised Tribes' are much the same way.
elm
home and other familiar things
Maybe the best metaphors are ones that come to *you* spontaneously, emerging as an immediate response to some embodied experience in the moment, not "How do I force this situation to fit the metaphor that seems to fit this situation the most perfectly," or overapplying a trite recycled metaphor that has grown detached from the original circumstances that first inspired it. Something you never thought of in that way before, but now suddenly makes perfect sense, which in turn allows something even bigger to suddenly make sense. "A metaphor is two disparate experiences of very different quality and scale that magically collide in the universe, not because they have to but because they can." "A metaphor is just a definition on acid." Which is the real metaphor here?
"It's a whole-body thing: my feet in their wandering practice a love for the world; most of what my hands do is about a love for human beings, for all our flaws and failings." What a neat way to put it. I've always felt like the feet, hands and head are the three key antennae of our body (perhaps for people without hands or feet this shifts elsewhere).
I wasn't familiar with Frank Wilson's book, but I'm surprised you didn't mention the one by Raymond Tallis, a philosopher who never fails to say interesting things:
Raymond Tallis: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-hand.html
For myself, reading your essay, it was hard not to think of pop culture's best homage to the hands:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdrChyGb574
Did you see this?
"My hands do the thinking,” he said. “It is not a conscious process.”
From early early interviews with Cormac McCarthy
I love this. I want to work with my hands more...without sitting so much. I am seriously pondering how this can work. I year ago I started journaling by hand and I love it, but it also became just another sitting activity. And standing is also not moving! I took a doll making course and loved it. But again, sitting. I have decided my meditations need to be moving, mostly anyway. But I would like to get back to drawing and writing and move more.
One thing I try to do every day is put lotion on my hands and feet and do it in a way that is expressing my gratitude to my hands and feet. Like really caring for them. It’s such a small thing.
Thank you as always, Nia, and for the reading suggestions. First up for obvious reasons for me to peruse is the one on forensic science. Such scientists who work with organizations such as Physicians for Human Rights are heroic.
"They write, too, and occasionally play music. I forget that sometimes."
Last night, I stumbled across some files on my computer that I had managed to recover from a dead hard drive years ago and never reviewed or organized. Found some audio doodles and composition sketch recordings I had made with much fear and self-loathing. Thought to myself, "Wow, I used to do that. And, it actually sounds pretty good."
First, I love the aspen grove photograph. It reminds me of the grove behind the Métis cemetery we visited in Teton Canyon up above Choteau.
In that Movement Matters book I mentioned a few weeks ago, that I know you have now too, she talks specifically about this kind of thing, and even uses berry picking as an example. All these movements – the picking, the harvesting, the shucking and shelling, the cleaning, the preparing – comprise various series of movements that used to be part of our non-sedentary lives that we have drifted away from, and to our detriment. Movement of any meaningful, purposeful nature stimulates the brain, doesn't it? Then there are the people who describe their desire to "do something with their hands" for work as opposed to just mouse clicks and finger taps. I know I feel that! I think it's a lack many of us feel maybe without even being able to articulate it.
Additionally, this book that I indulged myself in ordering a couple weeks ago arrived in the mail earlier this week. It's gorgeous.
https://lostartpress.com/collections/books/products/the-handcrafted-life-of-dick-proenneke