After watching last Tuesday’s episode of House, my roommate and I got into a spirited discussion about whether it would be better to have your right hand cut off, or die. I came out on the side of death, saying that life without a right hand would be no life at all. All of my hobbies and my work involve using two hands, and unlike some people, I am not ambidextrous at all. I can’t even sign my name with my left hand. She thought I was crazy. “At least I’d be ALIVE,” she said, trying to defend her choice of handputation. Well, if you call that living.
So I ask you, which is worse: to lose your dominant hand, or die? Could you stand life without a hand? If you’re truly ambidextrous, answer as if both your hands would be cut off.
I think I could manage life without my left hand, though I’d have to be heavily medicated. Feel free to answer for your crap hand too if you want.
I’d like to live because, as Archive Guy said, you could learn.
Plus, hooks are friggin’ sweet! You’d have the coolest story to tell!
Seriously though, I have a friend in the Marines. He has said that if he sustains an injury that leads to amputation, he hopes it is one of his legs. His theory is that prosthetic legs are quite high tech nowadays and you could just wear pants. The hand/arm thing freaks him out, though.
Without thinking, I thought to myself, “Die”. But then I thought about it and realized that I could learn to write with my left hand. But there’s no way in hell I would draw as well with it. Unfortunately, playing guitar would be impossible.
But think about it–my career as a writer would be RUINED. There are very few hobbies I could do, especially nothing I do currently, such as knitting or linoleum block printing. I don’t play a musical instrument, but if I did, that would be RUINED as well. And what kind of a job would a one-handed person get? And who would ever be attracted to a one-handed girl, aside from a pathetic one-handed boy who can’t score a two-handed girl?
Also, I am a huge symmetry freak. I’d just be sitting around looking at my arms all day saying “Still not even! Still not even!”
How would this prevent you from writing? If Stephen Hawking can write books, you certainly could. You should check out My Left Foot sometime. There are probably any number of prosthetics that would allow you to knit or do printing.
And as for the attraction factor, read up on Paul McCartney’s current marriage. He’s not as young as he used to be, but he’s hardly “pathetic.”
How would your career as a writer even be affected? Have you never heard of voice recognition software? One handed typing?
One handed people can do pretty much everything two handed people can do. They can tie shoes, drive cars, use the phone, swim, ski, etc. Monkey bars and the uneven bars in gymnastics are kind of out, but those are not really life skills.
The lead baton twirler at Iowa State University about 7 years ago had only one hand, and she was Miss Iowa and almost won Miss USA. There was a famous major league pitcher who was one handed.
Almost any musical instrument can be played one handed (possible exception of flute and sax).
In the list of things men look for in women, hands are not real high on the list.
I’m usually quick to say “That would suck, just shoot me…” but I’d certainly not give up my life just for my hand. I’d bet you would hardly miss it after a few years.
I’m sure you could be fitted with a prosthetic device which would allow you to hold a pen and right freehand with it. It might take some practice, but… c’mon, I played football when I was younger with a kid who only had one hand a the other hand was missing from a birth defect. He played receiver, and was a pretty good one. If you really believe this, you’re not crazy… you’re pathetic.
People without a hand do just fine. I don’t know where you got the idea that they don’t. There’s something about “I’d rather be dead than have (whatever)” that I find waaaay disturbing. Not that it wouldn’t suck to lose a hand, of course, but since I run into milder sorts of that sort of idiocy occasionally, it really really pisses me off that there are people who would rather be dead than have whatever disability/medical condition/whatever. I know a couple of people who have had people say that TO THEIR FACES. Believe it or not, life is more than well worth living even if you aren’t physically perfect.
If it’s me or the hand, take the hand. As for the rest, I’ll adapt.
Oh! I’m married to a gimp! I must be a pathetic girl who couldn’t get a man who can walk stright without a cane! God, that’s an embarressing thing to discover at this stage.
Years ago I used to have a weekly tennis lesson with a professional coach. We would work on a particular shot for half an hour and then just play points for half an hour. One week he rang me to tell me that he had torn ligaments in his shoulder and wouldn’t be able to give me a lesson for a while. The next week he rang to say all was well and lessons could resume. When we were rallying I realised that the ball wasn’t getting past him when I expected it to because he was playing left-handed. I asked him when he had learned to play left-handed and he replied, “Last week. If I don’t play left-handed I don’t eat.” He was still far better than me playing left-handed.
When I was psych nursing I met a psychiatrist who had formerly been a surgeon. Over a period of a few years he lost his sight. During this period he decided that the only branch of medicine where blindness wouldn’t be a disqualification and respecialised as a psychiatrist.
So I guess if you have the right mental resources you can overcome physical maladies.
Preach it, sister. This attitude bugs the crap out of me, too. I have worked with lots of people with disabilities, and to a person, they are glad to be alive. Hell, I had one patient who had both hands and both feet amputated at the same time. Two years later, she is raising her children and doing fine.
Do you somehow think that people are chosed by the Disability God to become disabled and somehow the DG only picks strong people? I bet it you asked people a week before their injury, they might say that they would want to die, too. But then it happens, and guess what? They want to live. You might think you know how you would react, but you don’t, not really. So saying you would want to die is dumb–you can’t know how you would react, and if you are like the vast majority of folks, your will to live will overcome.
Secondly, it is an insult to people with that disablity to say that. How would you react if you had something that people went around saying they would rather die than have? Especially, if as I explained above, they were probably wrong???
Around here you can get these special greeting cards, the art on which is done by mouth and foot painters. These people are either paralysed or multiple amputees, and have learned to paint with their mouth or feet with the help of special attachments which help hold the brush.
Some of the art is really fantastic. Better than I could do with my hands.
