Finger Post

The finger.

It is a remarkable and well used part of the human body. It has a history. It has purpose. It is chock full of blood, fat, nerves and blood. Which was well documented when I did a Google Image Search. The yuck factor was in full play.

Beyond the people whose hands feature a lack of digits as you would have seen a preponderence of in the image search above, there are people with more than the usual number. Anne Boleyn was said to have had eleven fingers. When trying to think of someone with extra fingers without the aid of the internet, the only one that came readily to mind was Count Rugan from The Princess Bride (I'm still awed by the fact that William Golding penned that and Marathon Man).

A report out of the Univesity of Berkely in California suggests finger length can be a suggestion of sexual orientation.

The finger of Galileo is a much visited thing in Italy's Museo di Storia del Scienza. There are, of course, many body parts of many famous people floating around the globe but we'll save that for a future post.

There is, of course, finger protocol. Giving someone "the finger" is one of the ignoble transgressions in modern culture. Its origins date back over 2500 years. In essence, the finger becomes the phallus. It is put out there, aggressively, staunchly, irrevocably, when one wants to challenge someone. There is no end to people giving the finger in literature, the internet and Jordan family albums. The finger went underground as a symbol of male testosterone when the Catholic Church became a dominant force until it once again made and reappearance with the advent of the photography. No doubt there is no coincidence. In John Bulwer's 1644 work Chirologica: of the Naturall Language of the Hande, we discover that the finger, or convicium facio (meaning, I provoke an argument) was a "natural expression of scorn and contempt." Finger gestures, including the two finger gesture seen mostly in Europe, are discussed at length here. The best history of world wide gestures I've found is right here. The Vitraka is a Buddhist gesture of Argument or Discussion. Looking closely at Buddhas or bodhisattvas, these gestures, or mudras, are very evident and each has a different meaning.

One can use one's finger for an online meditation,
for magic tricks , for knitting,
for puppet shows , for painting, playing twister,
identification and further on that score, soon for paying at checkout.

There are Chinese Finger Traps ,

Finger food ,

Finger joints ,

Coral fingers ,

and finger bowls .

Finger phrases are numerous. One can have a finger in the pie, one can put one's finger on something (or maybe one can't quite put one's finger on it), one can have an itchy trigger finger, one can have someone wrapped around there finger, something can be finger licking good, or something can be better than a finger in the eye. Well, many things could be better than that.

But we all know we can let our fingers do the talking.

So get your finger out.

You don't have to work your finger to the bone.

Don't let this chance slip threw your fingers.

I promise... I won't lay a finger on you.

But don't keep your fingers crossed.

Which would be difficult if you're all thumbs.