Corndogs + Avocados

I was watching CSI last night and one of the victims had a severed hand. Seeing the body sans hand got me thinking about how attached I am to my own two hands and how hard life would be without one or both of them.

Then this morning on my train ride into the city I spotted a man with an amputated left hand leaving him with a left thumb only (he was sitting directly across from me in my line of site). He was pouring over some architectural drawings, making notations, and doing it quite deftly. I thought here is a man who has not let adversity get him down.

Then I thought of Joe S from my hometown who lost an entire arm in an accident as a child. He employed me for a few weeks when I was just out of high school to help him build a new roof on his house. I was astonished at how skillfully he handled power tools, a tape measure, a hammer, and everything else. He was easily three times my age yet he danced circles around me up on that roof top. I will never forget the sight of this man with one arm carrying 2×4s across the roof. He was infinitely more skilled than I and in no way disadvantaged as far as I could tell.

So this entire ramble started by me watching CSI. The lesson learned? Watch more TV.