How often have we praised someone’s handiwork?  It could be a fine painting, a patchwork quilt, the way they play Chopin’s etudes or the way they pitch a tent.  Aristotle praised the hand as “the instrument for instruments”  – the hand that holds the pen, the paintbrush, the tennis racquet, the surgical instrument, the hoe, the steering wheel or the reigns of a horse; the hand that touches the keys of a piano, a computer keyboard, or the braille symbols in a book.  Aristotle considered the hand and the intellect as the “two inner instruments with which we use outer instruments.”

Produced and presented by Bernie Dwan.