Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Heavy hands, light prose.

My mother taught piano and plays beautifully. I have heavy hands and tend to pound the keys. All right for Wagner, I suppose, but useless for anything else.

It even applies to the keyboard. I pound the keys as if typing on an old manual typewriter. I don't know why - I like the staccato tapping I make - no one else does, and anyone in the room with me will usually beg me to "type softer!"
But I can't.

I have heavy hands when I type or play the piano, but I can write delicate prose, and when I draw, my hands are light.
I can't knit, I can't sew, and I can't hammer a nail without bashing myself on the thumb. But I can take a splinter out of my daughter's hand before she knows I've even started.

I can't iron and I can't fold clothes, but I can make sand castles with pointy turrets and arched gates. Somedays I think about my talents and my failures. Today it's my hands. The tap-tap-tap of the keys puts my dogs to sleep and sends my son upstairs to his room (and quiet).

7 comments:

debra said...

This is a lovely post, Sam.
I can't knit either, and I sweat when I go near a sewing machine. But give me wonderful clay or paper mache and my hand are light as they fly.

Rosie said...

This post is so great because it also shows you have the grace to understand and accept yourself. Bravo!

Charles Gramlich said...

I have heavy hands too, possibly from learning to type on a heavy duty manual typewriter. But fortunately my keyboard doesn't amplify it so I don't send Lana running for cover with her hands over her ears.

Wynn Bexton said...

A lovely sketch. I imagine it's one you did?
I typed on a manual typewriter for many years and the sound of those clattering keys was one I loved from my days in the news room editorial dept. Now I love the keyboard of the computer and I'm a fairly fast typist because of getting my early training on an old Underwood. Clickety click...
Hands are beautiful things...
You wrote so delicately about them..

Bernita said...

I, too am heavy when I type.
As Chris said on Monday ( a line I stole immediately) pound, keys, pound!

John Nez said...

Well I'm a fleet footed typist, but my drawing is always too heavy handed.

I can do just about everything except for math... I can fix cars, toasters, computers, printers, build furniture (homemade), build stairs, fences and gates.

Of course being so dashed clever I've often wondered why I'm so damn poor! Why? Because I was the moron who decided to become a children's book illustrator, that's why!

I'm glad my children are going into economics and real estate!

Why am I so clever? Because I can't afford to pay someone else to fix it!

lol!

Gabriele Campbell said...

I tpye and write very lightly. In fact, it takes lots of tries for me to find a pen that will work with as little pressure as I apply.

But I can't sew and knit at all. Give me a sword, not a needle. :)