If I Only Had One Arm…

Sometimes it is good to reflect on how life would be if you did not have some of the things that are so useful to us but that we take for granted as we live each day. Things like ample amounts of food you will appreciate better if you fast once in a while. Or maybe electricity, which if not available because of a storm or plant failure can literally shut down our world as we know it. We forget how important to our life these things really are. What I want to do is just that—I want to reflect on what my life (really everyone’s life) would be like with the use of only one arm.

Your arm is one of the things that sets you apart in creation from many, many different things. Fish don’t have arms, neither do birds, or snakes, or most four footed creatures. Really monkeys and some rodents (like raccoons) use their front most appendages like arms and they are considered crafty and advanced in a lot of ways. Arms allow us to multi task. We can move about while we manipulate things with our arms deftly and communicate all at the same time. Most animals that don’t have arms have to use their mouth instead which gets in the way of things like communication and breathing and other important tasks. So we would not be as crafty or as good at multi-tasking.

We would not be as capable of hard work with only one arm. It is amazing the difference in the ability of carrying things and manipulating our environment with one versus two versus more sets of hands. This is why the phrase “can you give me an extra hand” is such a commonly used one and why there are so many jobs that provide just that. Just think of all of the jobs that use extra “hands”—surgery techs, carpenters, lab assistants, animal trainers, entertainer sidekicks, police partners, etc. If you don’t have an arm you don’t have a hand let alone an extra one.

You also won’t be able to care for yourself as well. One arm and one hand can’t clean all parts of the body as well. It can’t cook, or feed itself as well. It can’t protect itself or get itself around as well. There just is no end to all of the things in your life that would be severely hampered by only having one upper extremity. This is why an arm is worth so much in lots of insurance policies, more than a leg for instance. So the next time you think you have it rough, tie one hand behind your back and see if your life seems better all of a sudden.