Would I Rather Lose a Hand?

I have a new version of The Book of Questions, by Gregory Stock, Ph.D. These are questions that make you think, contemplate your morality, and give your brain a workout.

The first question asks if you would rather "lose the use of all motorized vehicles, all telecommunication devices and computers, or one of your hands?"

This seems easy to me. I would lose all that stuff before I'd lose a hand. Good grief. I rather like my body parts, or at least the use of them, and hands are especially important. I remember how my husband was lost when he put his arm in the hay baler and couldn't use his hand for a long time. He still doesn't have full use of it - he can't pick up fine, tiny things, like a needle or small nail or something.

The question does force me to contemplate dependence upon certain things. For one thing, we live in a society where I drive to the grocery store once or twice a week. Sometimes that's the only place I go, but still. I don't grow a huge garden and can beans or otherwise worry about keeping a huge stock of food on hand. I keep enough things in cans here to get us through a week to 10 days in the event of bad weather or some other issue, but not enough to last a winter. Without a vehicle, we'd starve as it is a long walk to Daleville. I couldn't walk it, I don't think, although I suppose if I had to I would, pulling a little wagon behind me. But it would take a full day or longer. We don't have a horse and I can't ride a cow. Well, I've never tried but I am pretty sure that would be a failing effort.

To my mind the loss of a vehicle would be the greater loss of the things mentioned. I lived without a cellphone for years, and I don't need a computer. I could get by without a telephone at all, if I had to, and a computer. But a car? When I live far from a grocery store, a vehicle becomes a necessity.

That said, I spend a lot of time at the computer. I work on it, using it to write and make a living. I also play video games on it, use social media to keep in touch with people, and otherwise avail myself of the things it offers. I use the phone to talk to my friends, keep in touch with my husband when he's at work, and to check on my mother-in-law and other folks occasionally. Life would be lonelier without a telephone, for sure. (I still talk on the phone and don't simply text on it. Imagine!)

I do not watch a lot of TV, but TV wasn't mentioned specifically here. Is it considered a telecommunication device? How about a radio? I enjoy listening to music. It helps the day go by more quickly sometimes.

But in any event, none of these things are more important to me than my hand. Nor would I ask anyone else to give up a body part so that I might have these things.

In all honesty, this is a bad question. Losing your hand really has nothing to do with the items in question, except you use your hand to type or hit the keys on the phone. It's an either-or question that at its heart is irrelevant, unless you stop to analyze it a bit.

Not a good start, but we'll see what else is in the book.