Flesh Wound
Now this is something that is clearly relative. Yesterday at the day-job, for the first time in a very long, long time, I suffered two separate injuries that drew blood. To me, they were unfamiliar events. I was all thumbs. I ended up with a band-aid on the same part of each of my thumbs from two isolated incidents.
I know that getting a cut on the hand is a very common occurrence for some people. There are folks who hardly know what it would be like to not have a wound somewhere on one of their hands. I tend to reside on the opposite end of that spectrum. To me, a cut is a distinct aberration. It is a luxury I do not want to take for granted.
I don’t like wearing band-aids. They always end up with the edges flapping or frayed. They are like having something stuck in your teeth that you can’t keep your tongue off. I feel a constant need to fiddle with the band-aid, repeatedly pressing it back into place. I’m not used to having them on my hands.
Last night, I decided to uncover the wounds to let them dry out. Peeling the bandage off the more significant wound pulled and stretched the skin just enough to cause fresh bleeding. Suddenly I become an invalid. With no usable thumb, I fumble everything. I can’t hold my toothbrush right. I can’t hardly wash my hands. Getting undressed becomes a fiasco. I’m trying to hold my hand up in the air, thumb out to avoid getting blood on things, and waiting for a scab to develop. What a ridiculous disruption for such a superficial injury.
We are truly lucky and blessed to have these tools on the end of each arm, covered with this amazing regenerative surface that flexes and protects.
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I wonder if things really happen in threes. It just occurred to me that these cuts were the second and third injuries I have endured in the last few days. I forgot, because it didn’t draw any blood, but on Monday, I smashed my finger with a hammer in a scene right out of a comedy routine. It hurt like crazy! At the time, one of my first thoughts was that I hadn’t suffered an injury in a long time. Little did I know what was to come…
Relative Something 
Just thinking: there is that ‘liquid skin’ that you can use instead of plasters – my father swears by it:-)
Ian Rowcliffe
September 29, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Yes! We have “New Skin” that includes an antiseptic, and thus stings like the dickens when applied. I have used it in the past, but found it began to peel much sooner than seemed worthwhile. I found it to prove, over and over, how brilliantly amazing skin is to be so flexible, pliable, resilient, regenerative, and ultimately much better than the artificial liquid mask that tries to imitate it.
2-days and already the lesser of my two wounds is almost imperceptible, and the other is sealed over and well on its way to being repaired. I love how skin works!
johnwhays
September 29, 2011 at 5:46 pm
I think you know that I am a great apologist of Jung and his take on the ancient in us. And yes, he would say that there is no two without three especially when things are going awry. And so the green man would replenish Nature to make amends, a type of remuneration to redress the balance. And so we put back and plant trees, my friend.
I damaged my face, leg and hand, but now I am back on track, in sync – and what a privilege it is to be able to pay our debt and make things right again. What a wonderful thing our hands are in service of something greater than ourselves…
Ian Rowcliffe
September 29, 2011 at 12:23 pm