Our hands and fingers are so profoundly intertwined in human consciousness that it is difficult to get a grip on the full range of their impact. In essence, they give shape to our lives, our thoughts, our relationships with each other, while it is in their very nature and relationship with mind and thought to recede from direct consciousness. We can move through the day, each day, everyday with hands selflessly serving our thoughts. We give them no notice.

But how would our lives be different if we were to observe through the lens that the hands provide? How would things be shaped, and how would we live differently with each other were we to allow our hands greater voice, greater recognition and consciousness?

One of the things you may have noticed if you have become a regular reader of this blog, is that the hands are all over the place. There is nothing in human life that does not show their direct imprint. The human mind, on the other hand is somewhat limited in scope and organizational capacity. We struggle to put too things together where they stick. The mental landscape is fluid, with new theories and ideas constantly replacing notions disproved or supplanted. Finding an organizational framework so things as broad and complex as the relationship between the hands and their shaping of human life can be daunting. I have written a number of outlines for a book based on this blog, "The Wisdom of the Hands," which I have submitted to a variety of publishers and agents, and so far no takers. But that is something that can change in a flash.

Last Sunday at Books in Bloom, I was visiting with Dr. Peggy Kjelgaard, director of the Eureka Springs School of the Arts and realized that my own hands provide the organizational framework required. Open palms provide the introduction, and each finger and thumb provides the foundation of one chapter in ten leading to a complete reassessment of the role of the hands in shaping and reshaping our lives, toward greater meaning and fulfillment. And what could be simpler and more direct? Do you know where the process of digital organization came from in the first place? (I remove my fingers from the keyboard) Let me count the ways.

This May Fine Arts month in Eureka Springs. I'm not sure what "Fine" arts are, but I will be exhibiting my woodworking at Lux Weaving Studio on the night of White Street Walk, an event I missed last year because of my daughter Lucy's graduation and that I missed the year before because of my visit to Nääs, Sweden and the first international conference on Sloyd. I am looking forward my return!