The Enigma of the Ordinary: An Acknowledgment of the Human Hand

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The human hand is by far the most advanced form of evolution known to man. One rarely thinks of the oddities of the hand. Rather, one will see this organ and simply process its physical existence; it just is. In spite of the unintentional ignorance of man, the human hand defies logical expectation on a daily basis. The hand serves as a tool for creation and destruction; it is a symbol of love; it is a weapon of hate. It gives sight to the blind and speech to the mute. Every societal empire has only ever existed by virtue of the human hand, and each minute and beautiful detail that gives life to the realm of man falls to the responsibility of the hand.

To illustrate, imagine a world without the creations of our hands. Where would the world be without the musical talents of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Elton John, or Beyoncé? Museums would be just empty halls without the works of the likes of Monet, Van Gogh, Singer-Sargent, Kahlo, Picasso, O’Keeffe, or Renoir to fill them. It is often said that “Rome was not built in a day” but if not for our hands Rome would never have been built at all. No one would talk about Babe Ruth’s World Series home run had he not gestured to where he would hit it before doing so. Helen Keller might have lived in darkness and solitude her whole life if not for Anne Sullivan running Keller’s hands under a water pump while tracing the letters to spell the word on her hand. Had Shakespeare not written down his works it is likely we would not still have them in this lifetime. Humankind is nothing without our hands’ creations.

What makes our hands truly special, though, is the uniqueness held within each individual’s own pair. No two hands can exactly replicate the work of another’s in the same way. As mentioned previously, there is only one Ludwig van Beethoven, Leonardo da Vinci, and Charles Dickens, and I will never write the “Moonlight Sonata” or paint the “Mona Lisa”, and neither will any other human as long as man survives. Replications may be attempted, or may even successfully be brought to fruition, but there lacks a certain soulfulness and charisma in a reproduction that the original artist’s hands working in tandem with the thought that gave spark to the work presents. The muscles move differently and the strength and weakness of one’s own experience affects the product’s execution. No machine could ever generate or replicate the touch of a human; flaws are not coded features. The beauty of our hands, additionally, extends beyond their capabilities, more simplistically, to their irreplicable design. Each fingerprint and palm pattern is completely distinctive and personal to that individual. Those who study palmistry believe a person’s destiny is etched into the patterns of the human hand, and each marking and line holds special meaning for each person: lines of the heart, the head, of life and of fate each relay a path predetermined as the body was formed within the mother’s womb. There’s comfort in knowing that even though you may not always be able to create an original work, you yourself are an original already created by nature.

We learn, live, love, create, destroy, embrace, reject, and feel all through our hands. Humans are made separate from every other living creature because of both how our hands are structured and what we are capable of doing with them. The work of the human hand can make you feel alive. Listen to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor and understand the delicate touch and powerful forte of the hand involved in creating a masterpiece. Gaze up at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and understand the gentle strokes of a brush and channel the dull ache of persistence as felt by Michelangelo during those four years in your own hands. Run your fingers over the course needlework of a sweater your mother knitted you and understand love. Hands, by extension, present a physical form of emotion. Anger can be expressed through a fist, with fingernails digging into one’s palms. Anxiety can be observed by uncontrolled shaking or idle tapping of fingers or pulling of one’s clothes. Love might be felt by gentle caresses or the spread of warmth which radiates from one’s hands. Hands serve as a connection between what is felt internally and how a person tenders these feelings in the physical world. The human hand is not to be taken lightly. It should not exist only in one’s mind as an extension of the body, but should be treated as an extension of the soul, a channel from the spiritual to the physical world. In the world of philosophy, Immanuel Kant is reported to have stated the hands are “man’s outer brain.” The hand is an organ of both performance and perception in which the whole structure of humankind has been continuously built upon, and as the world changes, so, by nature, change the functions of our hands.

Walter Benjamin illuminates the changing of our hands’ functions in his 1936 essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” in which he describes the evolution of art as reproduction replaces authenticity. Benjamin illustrates the evolution of technology as an accidental sacrifice of the most defining aspect of artistic function: the role the hand plays through the impact of human touch. In his essay, Benjamin describes this process as “free[ing] the hand” (Benjamin 1). This concept of freeing the hand speaks to the suspension of the need for the hand as technology simplifies every aspect of our lives. Benjamin describes the rise of reproducibility as a “renewal of mankind,” paralleling incidences of industrial revolution which were often viewed as defining moments in mankind’s evolution (Benjamin 3). With the development of technology came the retrogression of skill and usefulness of the hand the world once depended upon for everything. Gutenberg’s printing press eliminated the need to handwrite most texts and the invention of the camera made the process of physically drawing an image unnecessary; simple tasks of the past are modern day luxuries at best, and time-consuming nuisances to the not so artistically inclined. Receiving a handwritten letter or observing an original work of art are special occurrences in today’s society of text messages and Google Images, occurrences that stir the human soul in a way no reproduction or cheap copy ever could; the human touch is present within these luxuries, the human hand is at work.

Technology has not taken anything from our hands, but it has distracted us and allowed us to live with less dependence upon them, and in turn, has stifled practices once prominent in our lives. There exists a sense of uneasiness in knowing what once could only be created by intense construction of hand can now be just as easily produced with a few finger clicks of a button. The age of the post-stamped letter, the musical instrument, the paperback book, has come and gone. The soul of these artifacts has become distorted by modern innovation. The uniqueness of an individual’s style of handwriting and the capabilities of one’s hand with the stroke of a pen have been standardized in the form of computer fonts. Symphonies, once gruelingly structured and orchestrated via pencil, sheet music, and instrumental experimentation, can now be composed on computers. As Benjamin eloquently put it, “the instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed” (4). Technology has transformed not only the way we create, but the creation itself. The channel between man and creation becomes distorted when technology serves as the middleman between mental conceptualization and physical actualization. The products of this manner of creation are not those that inspire or engage your sympathies; these are the products you buy in a souvenir shop to remember the product that actually moved you profoundly enough to want to memorialize the creation with a cheap replica.

In this Western world where we spend our days constantly working from before dawn till after dark, it is not unjustified to want a reprieve that technology offers us. In this way, people are more likely to watch a football game on television after work than to go out and play one with their friends. Technology has aided us in many ways that are undeniably beneficial. For example, prosthetic and bionic limbs have been developed by scientists to mirror the functions of biological limbs for amputees and victims of limb loss. Such technologies have led to the societal reintegration of victims of limb loss, allowing these people to return to relatively normal ways of life. Thus, it is not wrong to call these technological amenities “advances.” Yet it should be acknowledged that in the departments of manufacturing, we as humans have taken a backseat. We have allowed technology to take the wheel our hands once held, and regressed to the bare minimum of labor, instead insisting the practices uninvolved with technology be labeled indulgences. Similarly, this is not to say our hands are vestigial. Modern technology still, for the most part, requires a person to operate, and by virtue, does not eliminate the necessity of our hands. However, a desire persists within me to turn from the simplicity modern technology offers and to utilize what technology I have already been equipped with at the base of my wrists.

This is not a cry for us as humans to turn our backs on technology completely, simply a call for the reintroduction of the traditionalist practices of creation and the love that accompanies them. Learn to paint, to sculpt, to write in script, to play the cello, to sign American Sign Language, to perform reflexology, to braid your sister’s hair. Channel the forces that allowed the likes of Auguste Rodin to transform a slab of cold, hard stone into something delicately soft and cloudlike into your own life. Put to practice such forces with your own hands, recognizing the distinction between a machine-made product and one forged by the power of your hands. Above all, do not worry that what you make is not great; know that it is because it was made by your hands as an extension of the outpouring human soul. There is a verse in the Bible, Isaiah 64:8, which reads, “But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.” It does not take a devout believer to recognize the significance derived from a statement claiming we as humans were directly molded in the hands of God, created in His image, given the same tools of creation used to make us. In this distracting digital age of the hand’s suppression, it is up to us to retain the practices that distinguish humans from all other beings, to make use of our hands once more.

Works Cited

Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Modern Art and Modernism: A Critical Anthology. Ed. Frascina, Francis & Harrison, Charles. SAGE Publications Ltd. December 28, 1982.

Isaiah. The Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible. The Lockman Foundation, 1995. Web.