A Cup of Coffee

Of finger cuts

Imagine that you cut your finger accidentally with a knife. A finger cut is a small wound and a big bother, for they say there are an incredible amount of nervous terminations on the tip of one's fingers. All of sudden, your attention and worries are concentrated on that insignificant hurt. You are constantly reminded of it, as you try to accomplish your everyday tasks. Writing becomes difficult. Opening doors, combing and washing your hair, all the actions that you usually do thoughtlessly turn into moments when you use all your attention to carefully avoid more pain for yourself. It is not a serious wound, it is easily dressed and taken care of. But for a day or two, your life will revolve around it, as if you had become your cut finger.

Sometimes the soul cuts its fingers too. I have had these kind of finger cuts too in which risible conflicts acquire epic proportions. In fact, there is nothing to laugh about these situations. They are extremely upsetting because they are small scale versions of the most painful issues one has to deal with. They have all the elements of the drama, the full list of ingredients, but they are not the issues themselves. It is like a synopsis or a chapter, not the whole book. Or a miniature, and not a lifesize model. Healing finger cuts consume a lot of time and energy. In a sense, when this happened to me, it seemed that by tending my finger cut I was solving a really big wound, and for a second or two, I even fooled myself to think that this was going to make everything fine and normal again to me. Whatever normal means. And it certainly feels good and liberating to do away with the discomfort. But once it is over, it is important to put things in perspective. You have dealt with a simple, plain finger cut. And now, you got to try to understand why such a triffling scratch brought so much pain.

posted by Livia de Almeida @ 11:05 PM