I spent more than 30 years working with people by working with my hands - making shoes and orthotics, helping people walk better, with less pain, find a little more happiness in their lives. And I was pretty good at it.
But then, my hands went on me. That is, they began to go numb after not much use each day, and would become quite painful. So - it was time to change careers. And give up riding my motorcycle. Never got over either, really. So, things being as they are, I don't get to work with my hands as much as I'd like to. Until a few days ago.
My shoes had worn quite a bit, and my usual guy is now 86 and no longer doing the work - in fact, I'd been urging him to retire since he turned 75, but shoemakers are a stubborn lot. Fact, yeah! So, I went to my old colleague Arnie Davis at Davis Foot Comfort Center here in SF, and he just pointed at the shop and said, "have at it." So....
I spent two hours, fighting the numbing, but still - shear joy! As painful as it was, I found my hands and eye have not lost any of the skills I spent years developing. Dust, the smell of shoe dye, the noise level, the strain - none of it detracted from the shear pleasure of making something right again. To build, and shape, and finish to a beautiful surface, to find I can still achieve a perfectly balanced shoe....
If you have not been a maker of things, this may mean little to you. So few people are true makers anymore - it is not very fashionable, especially to have to spend years learning a very complicated and not very profitable skill. Let the computers and the robots do it seems to be the prevailing thought today. But to actually make a thing, especially something that has a use, that changes people's lives, that makes a difference? Well, I feel sorry for the people who don't ever get to know this joy.
I may not get to do such things many more times in my life, but to see that I still have the skill, that my hands, my eyes, my being remembered, acted, created - well, that is worth more than money can ever compete with. That, my friends, is real happiness.
Engaging fully with a passion gives our Spirits wings. Thank you for sharing your beautiful flight. :)
ReplyDeleteYes....it is soothing for the soul to create, true happiness!
ReplyDeletemy partner has club feet and his hands and feet are going numb..is the hands going numb linked do you think? it is very frightening.
ReplyDeleteI could not say, but there are things that can cause that - both at the same time, rather than first the feet, say, and later the hands. It sounds like a neurological issue, and I strongly recommend he see a specialist asap. Is he diabetic? That would explain the feet - peripheral neuropathy - but not the hands. Please urge him to get to a neurologist as soon as possible.
ReplyDelete