There’s a “Far Side” cartoon by Gary Larson in which some of his favorite subjects — cows — are sitting in the living room while a phone rings nearby.
They lament, “Well, there it goes again … and here we sit without opposable thumbs.”
Hey, cows:
Nyaa-nyaa!
The whole notion of human hands goes far beyond the biomechanical.
Hands figure heavily in relationships — holding hands, helping hands, hands that comfort, hands that caress, hands that clean up messes.
Hands given in marriage.
Hands that let go in death.
Recently, though, the act of Pontius Pilate washing his hands at the condemnation of Jesus, as retold leading up to Easter, made me think of how that looks.
We all know how to wash our hands, of course: one hand over, under, rubbing, soaping, fingers interlacing, squeezing, maybe making bubbles and definitely making suds.
So we may or may not go through the ritual at the sink when we wash our hands of something, but the action is there figuratively.
That same action, albeit usually without soap and water, is there when we wring our hands in frustration or helplessness. Ohmyohmyohmyohmy, what am I going to do? And often, if we’ve gotten to the hand-wringing stage, the answer is nothing, because we’re paralyzed by fear or insecurity or lack of belief in ourselves or the higher power’s ability to help us through.
Similar actions. Similar results.
All that’s different is the intentionality, and even that varies from one to the other only slightly.
Washing or wringing, our hands get us away from something annoying, something unpleasant, something difficult.
So why, then, do we need opposable thumbs? Or any of the other four fingers on each hand?
The index finger can point to the sunrise and the promise of a new day.
The ring finger can show the world we’ve bonded with a partner for life and continue to bare our souls in a way no one else can share.
The pinkie is a great place to tie a string as a reminder of something, even if we’re guaranteed to forget what it was. Hey, human, remember?
And that opposable thumb, which cooperates with the others so that we can get a grip? And heaven knows, we all need to get a grip.
On its own, the thumb is a perfect choice for blessing the forehead of people we meet, to remind them that whenever they want to wring or wash in times of trouble, they have a wellspring of Love to tap into.
