WITH THESE HANDS

I honestly would not have thought one day I’ll be writing about hands, I mean what can one say about hands? Not much neh! Well we use them to eat, pick things up and etc. Actually there’s a lot one can write about the topic, give yourself a moment and think about it. For the mean time I’ll tell you why I’m writing about hands, a few weeks back I was working with performing artists from UK, actually UK consist of Ireland, Whales, Scotland and England if there’s any country I’m leaving out forgive me! all this time I thought UK and England were just different names for the same country until I was corrected by a generous English man. So the performing artists are from England to be specific. They had a theme we South Africans and them could use to inform our artistic collaboration, I thought it’s a bloody ridiculous theme especially from a filmmaker’s point of view but thankfully I always fully mentally digest any project I commit myself in. The next day I made time to observe how others interpret the theme, and it hit me what it meant to me through other people. And most important as a South African! I use my hands to reach out to my fellow human being, to give them a hand shake! With that hand shake I can connect with them not only physically but emotionally and now and then spiritually. Yes! It all happens in a hand shake. And that’s why sometimes you can feel if they genuinely mean it when they say they okay. With these hands I can hold on to you and you, especially when a friend is in need; with my hands I can comfort you, help you lift something when you need extra hands. With these hands warm I can hold her, tell her how much I love her. It’s through my hands I can express joy, laughter by simply clapping my hands. My hands can beat a drum and create rhythm, which we will joyfully dance to, but in my case I can conceptualise an idea for a film then with my hands type a script and direct actors how to perform it with these hands. With these hands I pray to the all mighty to bless me so I can be a blessing to others; have the knowledge and wisdom to manoeuvre through this journey of life. Nelson Mandela used his hands to reach out to those who oppressed us in the past to forgive them, make them feel they still part of this rainbow nation. Well! That’s what my hands do and mean for me, so the performing artists from England had a brilliant theme and I thank them for that! Through my hands I type and publish on http://www.evansmathibe.blogspot.com what these hands mean to me. Now that I gave you more a moment to think about it, what do your hands mean to you?

Written by: Evans Mathibe