Things My Father Told Me



William C. Bryant, Jr.

 My father once told me about a time when he was a young resident (intern?) doing his emergency room rotation.  One of his patients was a man who needed stitches.  This was the first time my father had done stitches unsupervised and he was nervous.  So nervous, he could not get the stitches to hold. 

In frustration, he says he mumbled, "I'm all thumbs tonight." 

His patient turned to him and said, "Then you'd better find the rest of your damn fingers!"

Since my father was ultimately able to get this man sewn up all those years ago, we all had a good laugh.

I doubt that that nameless patient was trying to be inspirational.  Motivational, perhaps, in a vaguely threatening way.  But I hear my father delivering that punchline whenever those seams are crooked and have to be redone, when the fabric is somehow wrong-side-up, or when that stray piece of fabric attaches itself unnoticed to the work.  Find your damn fingers, and get on with it.