A Corner's Thought: A Hand Without the Thumb Finger

It's the end of the month today and in a few hours, we shall welcome a new month of July. The second half of the year begins. What a year it has been especially in my country with different issues entirely, but here we are still strong and moving. I sat down one day in one of these months and asked a question: what if there was nothing like the Hive platform, what would life have been for many of us? This is why in whatever you are doing, be grateful for this platform.

Alright, why is the title up there? What's the inspiration?

I had a slight accident this afternoon and it made me sit and ask the question: what if the thumb isn't there? How will the other fingers cope? We know how important the hand is to us. When we were young, we were taught the usefulness of the hands; for carrying an object, for eating, for washing, for shaking, for writing, for knocking someone's head, hahaha don't mind me, I put that there but isn't that true? Who has ever knocked someone's head with their legs? Well, something that can do that would be a moving vehicle and that can lead to death straight. Tell me, what's left for someone who was knocked down and the head was smashed in the process? That's straight to.... 🙃

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The thumb finger is one important part of the body that without it, slows someone's activities or even makes them delay it and in another case, can't do it. When I had a cut while in the kitchen preparing my meal in enthusiasm, I guess I was just too happy because it was one meal I thought to combine with some ingredients I hadn't used before. In the process, the blade of the tin went through my thumb finger and gave it a cut. Immediately, I licked the finger as blood was rushing out. I was like, "so, I have much blood in me. It's time to go donate some at the hospital"* 😃

I felt some pain which I had to endure till I was done in the kitchen especially when water touched it. I had no one to help me, so I endured the pain while finishing up with everything and said to myself, "I won't be touching any water till the next day" When I said that, I remembered I would be taking a shower later at night but I guess the pain would have relieved me before then because I applied shea butter which is known to be an effective ointment to heal wounds faster and suppressed pains.

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My food was placed on the table in front of me and I decided to remove my bra as it was inconvenient. So, I struggled to do this with my left hand only because I couldn't use the other one and that is because the thumb finger had gone to rest.

That situation got me asking such a question that if there were no thumb fingers on both hands, what would happen? How would we do our activities faster and not be delayed? The absence of the thumb finger can prevent the other fingers from functioning well and in other cases, it slows things. Imagine the struggle I had to face using my left hand to remove my bra; something that shouldn't take less than 2 seconds took me a minute to remove because using one hand was difficult.

The Almighty God who made the hand with five fingers knew their purpose and how important they serve each other with unity and love. When a finger is missing, it becomes difficult for the other fingers to function well and it can take time for them to adapt and perform effectively. This is different from those who do not have complete fingers right from birth because this has been made that way from their creation and can't be compared to someone who has complete fingers and due to some circumstances, lose one, it takes a long time for him or her to be able to adapt with the rest of the fingers and make use of them.

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I relate this to human support and collaboration with each other. I will take part B of the African Proverb that says if you want to go far, you go together. This proverb is true about these fingers on our hands as it emphasises the importance of teamwork and collaboration. Without these two ingredients of life, there cannot be a substantial result or outcome and also success won't be achieved.

The proverb also underscores the importance of working with others to overcome larger challenges unlike when I was struggling to remove my bra which took me time to do that using one hand instead of the collaboration of the other just because of the absence of the thumb finger. Even the way I am typing on my phone is different and slow because I am only using one hand.

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_{Both images are mine}