Touch Type

As I was writing just now, I realized that I am typing with only my pinkies these days, with my thumbs handling the space bar. (Using an Apple keyboard makes this possible, because it requires only a very light touch.) Usually I also use my right ring finger, but it’s been out of commission for a few weeks due to another ulcer, which, of course, formed on a pressure point, as in where I touch the keys.

What’s so interesting about this is that I don’t actually notice, most of the time, how I’m typing. My hands have learned to adjust to various fingers being unavailable for so long that they “know” the distance between keys without my having to look (for the most part). Kinesthetic memory is a powerful sensory skill.

Many decades ago, when I could still play the violin, I could hear a piece of music and sense in my fingers how to play it—where each fingertip would land on the strings, which direction to ply the bow. I certainly can’t play Mendelssohn anymore, but sometimes I can still almost know, intuitively, how.

So, I guess I haven’t lost that skill. It’s just emerged in a different way. Pretty neat.

Our brains and bodies are quite amazing, even when they don’t work perfectly anymore.

Evelyn Herwitz blogs weekly about living fully with chronic disease, the inside of baseballs, turtles and frogs, J.S. Bach, the meaning of life and whatever else she happens to be thinking about at livingwithscleroderma.com. Please view Privacy Policy here.

Image: Wayne Hollman