Old Hand

and other things

Current (y axis) as a function of time (x axis) in a mechanical switch. More current is up. Image from https://www.eejournal.com/article/ultimate-guide-to-switch-debounce-part-5/

I woke up this morning with Old Hands, especially my left one. The veins were prominent and bluish green, the skin thinner and more transparent, and the small mottles on it seemed more numerous. I had a shower, and the hand is now back to normal in the timeline. For a minute then it looked like my mother’s hands in her eighties.

I’ve always wondered how these gradual changes happen. Over the years, with hands as with other things like truth, wisdom, confidence, falling in love, skill at a task and others I have found that the idea of gradual change is wrong. Equally wrong is the notion of sudden change.

In reality most things in our heads and bodies happen like a switch bounce. When you throw a mechanical switch like the light switch on the wall, what you see is the light going on. What happens in reality is different: the current turns on, then off, then on for a bit longer, then off again, then eventually decides to stay on. It is neither gradual nor sudden, just hesitant.

I think most things in our lives changes like this. Every hangover is a glimpse of five years ahead, every good night’s sleep gives you back the five years. Every glimpse of understanding briefly puts you on a different level, but you revisit the old ignorance many times before moving all your beliefs to the new place.

New ideas in society flicker on and off for years before becoming the norm. If you follow all the blackouts, you will despair. I find that thinking of progress as being both sudden and hesitant helps with both hope and patience.