Person in Action

Continuing with the exercises that helped to motivate the mind the class moved onto an exercise in person and actions.

To begin we had to write some parts of a person and the actions and then actions that can be attributed to these aspects.

I chose to do my piece on an  arthritic person, strong and independent, yet aging and frail due to the disease racking their body.

Slowly walking to the cupboard, on legs that don't work as they once did, with feet that are gnarled slightly from years of hard work on hard, cold to the point of being almost icy, floors. Reaching the cupboard after what seemed like a trek from one side of the town to another, yet still in the kitchen of the tiny home she occupied, she reaches out, wincing slightly as the elbow locks ever so suddenly before releasing with the same speed and ferociousness that it had came, to allow movement once more. As the rheumatic hand grasps the ornately carved handle of the cupboard a tear runs down her face. The cupboard, now open, reveals jars with seemingly impenetrable lids, tightened by machines so tightly that it is a wonder that anyone could open them, at this point that one solitary tear turns to many.

The former army nurse who had endured many conflicts in places to numerous to mention was now being defeated by an invisible enemy, slowly, slowly and painfully. The arthritis had started slowly effecting only her hip and bringing the occasional wince, especially on the cold winter days, when the cool wind would blow and the mornings would start with the grass covered in ice. Now many years later the simplest of tasks have now turned into her own personal war, a series of pitched battles to complete tasks and make it through the day.Opening jars would now be the most difficult of tasks to complete. The gnarled hands that are weak, connecting to fingers that are now thin and wiry, bent at angles that cause problems even for the most simple tasks such as turning knobs, grasping handles and the most painful of all the opening of jars.

As the now shaking, trembling, frail hands grasp the jar, pain shoots from the wrist, up the arm, past the elbow and like lightning through the shoulder. Bracing the jar tentatively the formely sturdy nurse shakes from top to toe in preparation of the difficult task ahead of the twisting action that will cause pain indescribable  to all except those that are in the know. The action of opening the jar to spread jam on the toast. The knuckles white and bony as the pressure builds, slipping slightly as the moisture from the sweat interferes with the grip before it gives, almost effortlessly. Now after this battle has been fought and won she can sit down with her toast and enjoy the  day ahead with many more battles on the way, but battles that have been fought and won many times over.