216 ACTS

216_Hands

Hands I love, for their eminent making, and creation of objects, to buildings, making love as a sign, a symbology of our own. A sign of God’s creation.

Hands come in all shapes and sizes and are our first sense of touch as a child, to become accustomed to the toys we play with, while our mouths in the first 6 months take precedence for suckling, to pick up the toy and let it enter our mouths to get to know it better. Half-way through the first year, we tend to just use our hands, and make shapes, and patterns in our dance.[i]

We go to Sunday School and learn to use our hands to make a church, with a steeple, & inside are all the people. Simple gestures with our hands to explain this reverent, sacred moment every week, to worship & celebrate.

We perform abstract, meaningful, and conceited body language (meaningless). Our bodies are a performance for our sub-conscious minds at work; personalising and de-personalising ourselves and anonymously communicating.

But when hands are used purposefully, we may enter the world of making and building, in its various forms, and therefore, make a definite gesture.

Mythology tells us of many great God’s with the sun and moon in their hands or Atlas with the World on his shoulders. But in the makers making, comes poise, pose, and acumen for making, a series of hand gestures to suggest ways of linking and building our ways into and as a response to society.

Finally, we can supplicate, (like ACTS, adoration, confession, thanksgiving & supplication – the form of prayer, from the Bible), in child’s pose from yoga, and maybe the way Ab’ram prayed, in supplication, praying to God for mercy.

 We must never forget, every great man, object and building was made by machine, and hand!

[i] Leader, Darian, Hands, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House, London, UK, 2016, p.19.