Thursday 15 August 2024

An imaginary maiming

It came to me yesterday that it would be instructive to have all human beings' vocal chords removed and all human beings' hands cut off, or bound - temporarily. For a week, say.

Imagine a world where, for a brief moment in time, no human is able either to speak or to type, or write, or to manipulate any thing, least of all language.

If we all, but all, had voiceless, handless bodies, for a short period of time. (Those without sight, and those on crutches or in wheelchairs, could still use their hands for mobility, but not for communication.)

What kind of experience would that provide for our species?

Would we hear the fish singing? Could we sense the sap oozing up through wood into the leaves of trees? Would we perhaps flutter in natural sympathy with the fan of a seahorse's dorsal fin and shudder in bliss, with the feel of such fragility? We might grimace with rocks weathering salt winds, or totter with tiny calves looking for their mothers, who are crossing busy roads in dust storms.

I believe that such an experience could make the human heart become terrifically palpable inside each of our bodies. 

Pumping so much more than our own blood!


PS. Probably many of us would begin to dance.

PPS. Bullies and teasers would become identifiable pretty fast.

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