Saturday, May 3, 2008

I really do appreciate my thumbnail

O.K. So it probably sounds like a crazy thing to say, but I really do appreciate my thumbnail. I mean, let's be honest with ourselves - how often do we think of the minor parts of our body that tend to play a very important role? Probably, as in my case, we only think of these parts when we do something that makes them foremost in our minds.
Set the scene ... in the small kitchen in our apartment, preparing dinner I am quietly cutting up a bell pepper. Cutting out the insides, then into strips, then cutting into a small dice when low and behold the lovely sharp blade of my Chicago Cutlery chef's knife comes down on my thumbnail! Ouch! I exclaim. I pause for a moment looking down to see how much blood is already oozing out from the cut and to see how bad the cut is. It's doesn't look terrible (no need to call 911 or anything) but it's also not the kind of wound that you just shake off and keep working on dinner.
Upon further examination, I discover that I have cut clear through the thumbnail and just scratched into the surface of the skin. My lovely wife comes in to find out what I've done and I explain the situation to her calmly. She decides I need a bandage, I think a fingernail cutter is in order to attempt to remove the remnant of fingernail that is somehow still attached to my thumb. I discover there is not much blood, so I decide that finishing the dice on the bell pepper and throwing it in the pan is in order ... afterall, there's a pregnant woman waiting for her dinner and I don't want my carelessness to get in the way of that.

Once I get the fingernail trimmer, I attempt to remove the piece of thumbnail to discover it's attached by the skin under the nail ... so I opt to not rip the skin wide open and just put the bandage over the wound and figure I'll deal with it later.

The next day I examine the wound and discover it's really not that bad. But for the short time I had the bandage on my thumb I was abundantly aware of all the times that I use my thumb and how something as simple as a nail cut by a kitchen knife can get in the way. I also became very grateful for having a thumbnail ... afterall without it there's a good chance I would have cut well into the thumb itself. I also thought about the many uses the thumbnail serves ... the opportunity to peel things, pick things (c'mon, we've all picked our nose at least once in our lives), pick things up, etc ...
So, this is my ode to the thumbnail, one of the less appreciated parts of the body, but a very important one. And for those of you looking for a spiritual tie in this experience, you need look no further than Paul's letter to the Corinthians where he writes (in the 12th chapter): Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.