This is one of my deep thought blogs.  Pat is away and there is nothing on TV so I am sharing my thoughts with you.

Over the years, whenever I need to hold a small piece of wood next to a blade running at 7000 revolutions per minute, I use my left hand.  Whenever I am hammering a nail I use the left hand to hold the nail while the right wields the big hammer safely away.  When drilling a hole with the drill press the right hand is on the handle while the left hovers around the spinning bit holding the piece to be drilled with all the risk of the drill jamming and spinning violently.

This should have nothing to do with the fact that I am right handed.  Many of these functions that I delegate to the left would benefit by having the more supple and controllable right handling the delicate adjustment of the piece of wood while the left did the easier non-skilled work of turning the wheel.

Regardless, this is the way I have always done it, and as a result my left hand and arm has a multitude of battle scars to prove its assigned role.

Happened again last night as I was cutting a small piece of wood on my little table saw.  A momentary, no not momentary, a micro second of inattention and the blade was running through the tip and nail and flesh of the pointer finger on my left hand.  (fortunately this does not happen that often)

Later in the evening as I was preparing for bed trying to hold the left hand aloft to ease the pain, I had the intellectual conversation with myself about if it is fair to favour one hand over another.  If you have 2 children would it be fair to send one into battle while holding the other safe?  Should I not send out the child (read hand) that is actually more skilled and capable to deal with the danger or send the one less regarded and with a the greater risk of injury?   Let me tell you the pain is the same regardless of the hand.

But as I brushed my teeth (with my right hand) I realized that I was correct.  I am not sure if I could do many of my needed functions with my left.

However to give my left hand credit, as I type this, do you realize how hard it is to type when the left pointer is out of action.  Try typing without the r-t-y-f-g-h-v-b characters.

I think I should resolve to care for both my hands equally as I would for my children.