Friday, March 13, 2009

The opposable thumb

One of the great steps in evolution that lead to man was the development of the opposable thumb. This allowed monkeys in trees to grasp onto branches and move rapidly through the forest.
When man's antecedents took to the land their hands became indispensible for clasping weapons and using computers. Without the opposable thumb none of this would have been possible.
I have learnt thru personal experience how important an opposable thumb is, since I injured my right thumb. This is how it happened, at the gym I was trying to change the device, correctly known as a thinga-me-jigabob, that is on the end of a pulling machine, used to improve your arm muscles. I removed the piece that was there that I didn't want, and went to grasp the one that I wanted to replace it with, and while doing this I held the hook at the end of the wire in my right opposable thumb. But, I had forgotten to release the weights on the end of the wire, and since someone a lot stronger than me had used it before, the weight was considerable, and it pulled my thumb up with great rapidity. Needless to say I experienced a moment of surprise and terror. What happened next is that my thumb became, to use the technical expression, "hyper-extended." The result is that now it is no longer opposable.
All the joints in my thumb became somehow damaged, and the top one especially can no longer be bent effectively, it became a "trigger" joint, and at first it was a bit of a joke, but after some time the humor wore off and now I can't bend it and it is painful (no more laughing).
So I went to the doc, got some x-rays, and then the orthopod, who he told me it wasn't broken, and now physio, which means having my hand held by a nice young woman, who, to teach me a lesson, puts my hand in hot wax, and I have to show her that I can stand pain.
In some ways I have regressed in evolutionary terms, I can no longer open a can with a can-opener, unless its electric, and I have to have my wife carry out many minor functions that before I, as the man of the house, used to consider my right, such as opening the door with the key. While an opposable thumb is admittedly a useful attribute, nevertheless, with a helper one can live quite effectively. But, the moral of this story is protect your opposable thumb or it will oppose you.

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