Our Digitus Secundus Manus

Praise be to you, O Digitus Secundus Manus, Finger of Man.
Magisterial is your earthly royal demeanor, O finger of man.
Upholding the office of a magistrate, an emperor or a king; deferring only to The Finger of God.

Hail to thee, most auspicious one.
Our forefinger of foremost authority.
Overseer of your temporal realm to which all are ambidextrously in obeisance.

Even the sturdy Pollux himself, as First Digit, a Loyalist by your side, defers to your ungual tuberosity and dexterity; giving rigid “thumbs up” to your loquacious manipulation.

As the most dexterous and sensitive Digitus of your earthly realm, you rein by releasing, generating, and activating physical, emotional, psychological and semantic movements in both human and other animal species.

O Digitus Secundus Manus.
O symbolic gestural pointing finger of man.
O central index finger of early child development; ever facilitating speech vocalization.

O finger of guidance as amplifier of verbal communication.
O finger of sign language.
O finger of human communication central to directional pointing.

Pointing upwards and downwards.
Pointing towards and away from.
Pointing for approval or disapproval.
Pointing for scolding and for disciplining.

O Digitus Secundus Manus.
Pointing backwards to indicate events of the past.
Pointing forwards to indicate events of the future.
Or, as in some cultures, employing vice-versa directions to indicate the past and the future.

As, for example, in the culture of the indigenous Aymara peoples of the Andes and the Altiplano regions of South America.
So, too, like the ancient tribal folk of the Levantine Fertile Crescent.

For both these agricultural lifestyle cultures, the past is indicated by that which lies before them, which has been seen; which has been experienced; and is therefore ‘known.’

For these same cultures, often perceived via modern lenses as primitive in our eyes, the future is indicated, linguistically and dexterously, by that which lies behind them, out of their sight, hidden; and therefore not manifested.

O, what irony!  We, in our modern 21st century way of thinking, view ‘reality’ quite differently; both linguistically, semantically, and culturally.
We see and set the past in our hindsight and the future in our foresight; as that which lies ahead of us, and therefore we can only imagine.

O Digitus Secundus Manus.
O magisterial supreme forefinger of American poet Angelina Weld Grimké’s pointing “Black Finger.”
O finger of guidance and direction of all poets and artists; all who fashion things of this world.

O Doctor Finger, Healing Finger, Heart Finger, Leech Finger.
O Human Finger, dispenser of both deeds and misdeeds.
Our fingers, being mortal, have need of a more mighty, immortal finger.

O Almighty Finger of God.
O etsba Elohim (אצבע אלהים).
O Finger of God, O Finger of Man!
It is to you, O Lord, that we must all ultimately defer.

Help us, Dear Lord,  to find our right direction in this global world that we creatures call home.
O Finger of Man.  O Almighty Finger of God!