Somewhere over the years, karma gave me the finger.
It all started with an incident in Mrs. Jones’s high school English class. Classmate Tracy Holder was unconsciously performing multiple animated hand gestures as he delivered an emphatic observation. Unnoticed, I smugly imitated his gesticulations.
(That was not my finest hour. The late Tracy was a cool guy, and I would definitely not give my immature younger self an “o-tay” signal for such tomfoolery.)
By the time I was producing an exaggerated version of a basketball referee’s “traveling” signal, Tracy caught on and shot me a death glare.
It didn’t dawn on me for a long time, but some combination of college Speech & Theater courses, years of teaching Bible class, life’s inevitable ironic twists and turns and the Curse of Tracy turned ME into one of those “hand talker” people.
Certain nationalities and ethnic groups (such as Italian-Americans) are stereotyped as relying on body language to enhance the spoken word, but I assure you that the trait can befall people of any ancestry. Yes, my “air bagpipes” are just as efficient as “air violin” for mocking a tale of woe – although I do shudder at the thought of a cooked sheep’s stomach being thrown at me in retribution.
I shouldn’t complain about the unanticipated evolution of my speaking skills. Research shows that people who communicate through active gesturing (including classics such as “the forehead smack,” “the pinch of salt” and “rip off the Band-Aid”) tend to be evaluated as warm, agreeable and energetic.
(Research also shows that if you give researchers enough funding, they will likewise declare that people surrounded by a chalk outline also tend to be evaluated as warm, agreeable and energetic. But I digress.)
Copyright 2024 Danny Tyree, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.