Hand fracture

A broken hand is a defining moment. From one second to the next your most important tool fails. You can no longer grip, no longer hold, no longer act. The cast forces you into a pause you've probably needed for a long time — and would never have taken on your own.

The hand is what you use to touch the world. With it you take, with it you give. With it you work, stroke, hold on, let go. It is the most direct tool of your self-efficacy — the extension of your will into the world. When it breaks, not only a bone breaks. Something breaks in the way you've been dealing with the world up to now.