"My hands, my feet, I throw my whole body to say all that is within me."
Mahalia Jackson
photo from NYTimes here
One of the habits or gifts- if you will- I inherited is talking with Hands-No, Not "Talk to the Hand"- but the gift of making your words mean more by using the hands to define, emphasize, to say something more
Do hands add drama ? Some say.
I would suggest these spontaneous gestures say something specific-
Susan Goldin Meadow:
Gesture is chameleon-like in form, and that form is tied to function...when gesture shares with speech the burden of communication, it loses its language- structure and assumes instead a holistic form.Although not language-like in structure, gesture that accompanies speech is not just handwaving. It conveys information imagistically and, as such, accesses different information than speech does. Gesture thus lets speakers convey thoughts they do not have words for and may even play a role in changing those thoughts.
Rato Monk with Rosary-by Nicholas Vreeland
but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.
Maxim Gorky
Nicholas Vreeland-director of the Tibet Center in New York, was beloved by his GrandMother, Diana Vreeland, and as she grew older-He, living in New York and with her for a time, became more beloved as Friend. He said:
"This was long before people shaved their heads... “I was living with her in her apartment at the time and she was in New Mexico. I called her and told her.
And she said, 'Oh, Nicky. How could you have done that to me?'
And I said, 'I didn’t do it to you. I did it to me.'"
"She was totally supportive of me," he said, "and the me she was supportive of was not always the me she wanted.She wanted me to be a successful, rich, ambitious person leading a grand, glitzy life."
I think Mrs. Vreeland, one who valued Beauty and Individuality- would find her grandson to be wildly Successful- But on his own terms.
Likely, That, She would have found most successful of all. She was a lady who always found Success on her own terms Best.
photo by Priscilla Rattazzi here
one of my favorite Diana Vreeland photographs
read Even the Dalai Lama Needs a Point Man at the NYT here
read about Nicholas Vreeland from Elizabeth Avedon here
& here
SEE the Rato Dratsang Foundation Photos by Venerable Nicholas Vreeland here
read Susan Goldin Meadow's research on Talking and Thinking With Our Hands here
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