Lessons from a Simple Cut

So, no sooner have I started to write again, I'm incapacitated. Yes, the tools of the author came unavailable to me - it seems that while I suffered no nerve damage in my recent encounter with a creative way to hurt myself and as such this is good, I did sever a tendon. Sooo, I went under the knife, got my hand carved up - which certainly looked a lot worse than the original cut - and had my hand bandaged up and was out of typing commission for a while.

Now, I'm a couple of weeks out of it and I can move the hand a little more easily, but I really shouldn't. The hand is swollen, I wear a brace, and bending hurts. So for all this: I get to move the tip of my pinky finger again. It wouldn't be so bad, but the cure really seems to be worse than the ail.

The course of treatment is actually kind of funny, really. Every couple of hours, I have to passively flex my fingers at the joints, then massage the scar on my hand. What is really pretty okay about the whole thing is that it literally forces me to be cognizant of what I am doing every couple of hours.

How often do we just act from muscle memory? Here is an example: take a look at the brake pedal in your car and if you've owned it for a while, you'll see wear in a particular spot where you always put your foot; at some random point in time, perhaps while you're stopped at a light, take a look at where your foot is on the brake. Do you remember putting it there? How about the wear on your keyboard's space bar?

I've noticed some callouses on my hand from writing that I didn't realize were there. I've noticed how much I actually do with my right hand and how much I do with my left. Funny how little disturbances in the way you go about doing things causes one to go about looking at things differently.

How often do we take what we have for granted? I received emergency room care for what I thought was a deep, but simple cut I received collecting trash in my home. I saw a doctor, I had x-rays, I was disinfected and glued up with sterile medical adhesive. When I realized there was something possibly wrong with my pinky, I went to my doctor, was referred to a hand surgeon - something of an uber-specialty - and had surgery the next day in a sterile operating room under exceptional circumstances. One week later, to the day, and almost exactly to the hour my surgery was finished, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook the country of Haiti.

As of today, reports are that the death toll is upward of 70,000. People are being treated in abominable conditions, amputations are being carried out in mass numbers, using vodka as a sterilizing agent. I received some of the best medical care in the world for what could be described as a quality of life issue. The people of Haiti are being treated in courtyards by people in many cases who are not doctors and because they have no other option are having limbs amputated. As one of the least economically developed nations in this hemisphere, if not the world, and one of the poorest in the world, ask yourself what the continued economic prospects are for an amputee in Haiti.

The life we live is often times outside of our control. As Malcolm Gladwell points out in Outliers, we are a product of our individual circumstances and our place in time as much as we are by our own individual capacity. Were I born in another place, and/or in some other time, what I have just experienced would have been dramatically different. What do I choose to do with that?

We make choices in life. We sometimes make choices without knowing, sometimes choices are made for us. It is always what we choose to do with those resulting circumstances. How can we best position ourselves to be able to be presented with opportunity, to make full use of that opportunity, and to somewhat control our path? The day-to-day choices are seldom within our control. The larger scope of our choices are. Sometimes knowing where you stand - or where you have placed your foot - is just as important as where you are going in that car when you have the opportunity to step on the brake.

I haven't been particularly pleased to have my hand all wrapped up, but I have taken the opportunity to reflect on the situation. Perhaps that's what I was supposed to do...you know, if you were to believe in the power of the universe Me, I'm looking at it as making the most of the situation. I have much about which to be humble - this is to be sure - but as I convalesce, I am further humbled by the fact I have received much for something that in the greater scheme of things is minor, I am reflecting on simple things like making sure my fingers work, and how the fact I live in this point in time, where I live has allowed me this minor inconvenience. Some heavy lessons from a simple cut.