H is for Hands

Cold hands = warm heart
Rough hands = lots of work
Smooth hands = affluence
Long fingernails = affluence in old China
Wrinkled hands = bath OR old age
Warm hands = cordiality
Wet hands = nervousness
Clammy hands = nervousness OR heart attack OR cold room
Greasy palms = keeps the economy moving
Fist and sickle = workers unite
Fist = rock
Raised fist = fourth down
Straight arm fist = freeze
Fist against table = damn OR call to order OR making a speech
Fig fist = screw you OR got your nose OR Goddess
Raise a hand = pick me OR hi OR high-five
Fist pound = yo, we did it!
Hands folded open = a book
With a strong hand and an outstretched arm = how Pentateuch God tells you off

Hands are a major focal point for gestures. They can move and articulate with fine enough motions to have an alphabet, a vocabulary, an entire language. They enable us to write, type, draw, touch, caress, slap, flick, punch, pick up, toss, throw, and otherwise manipulate or experience objects. They are indispensible, and I hardly know what I'd do without them.

I try to use them responsibly. I try not to hit others or flick people off. Part of living with any body part is learning how anger can animate as compulsively as my will. Hands are a key to verbal language, yes, but they also hide the language of a person's psyche behind it. They can be read, and people can see all the insecurities beneath. And I'm too much like Adam and Eve to want to appear naked before others.