My Right Hand Has Become My Best Friend During The Pandemic

I promise that this isn't what you think.

But then again, I don't know how you think.

This story about my right hand started in March of our Lord's year 2020.

It was supposed to be the year that I accomplished that big goal. The period that we achieve that colossal benchmark. 2020 was supposed to be THE era that I would win life's lottery because that's the promise I made (and I bet you did too) on December 31st, 2019.

But COVID had other plans for our resolutions.

The world went into lockdowns, folks went into isolation, and the only way we could communicate for a while was over our balconies. Or our laptops on Zoom. And for some, it was on social media.

Remember those days?

Bear with me here; I'm getting to my right hand in just a second.

And no, you don't need to turn your screen so the person next to you can't read this. This isn't THAT kinda story. I think.

The thing is, I'm the type of person who is a noticer.

No, it's not some strange sub-cult of folks who meet on every third Sunday, dress in robes, and have a funny chant.

It means I notice stuff.

And what I began to notice was that most of the "influencer" types were still out there on beaches, boarding planes, basically living life on social media. And posting it for all of us to see. And also for us to wonder.

Now before you wave that holier-than-thou flag and say to yourself and me, "Ricky, I don't waste my time on the social media brain drain," lemme just call BS. When lockdowns hit, we pretty much, as a society, turned to Netflix and Insta. We grabbed some couch time and binged and surfed.

But back to the influencers a sec…

It made me curious as to how the heck they were able to still do influencer stuff but more so, who was taking all their darn pics and writing all those wicked cool captions and copy?

I mean, aren't we in a lockdown?

Isn't travel almost at a standstill?

Didn't they say to stay socially distanced and masked up?

So how the heck do these people always seem to have a photographer around and someone to write really cool captions?

The truth is, I don't know.

What I do know is that my right hand was free, though.

It was free to snap some selfies, and it was free to write that copy. My right hand became my "lockdown BFF." Heck, he wasn't doing a darn thing anyway, so why not put him to work?

And then something unexpected happened.

The realization that my life may well be a story worth writing about. Well, "worth" is a relative term, I know, but the truth is the more I thought about my right hand and his newfound role, it became a tale worth telling about how my right hand became my BFF during COVID and the adventures we had together.

Hell, we even launched a freelance writing career together.

But I digress…

I snapped gobs of pics. I posed in front of The Alamo (I live in Texas) and wrote some excellent words. My wife and I did selfies to share with our family, and yes, my right hand was complicit through it all.

He got worked so hard and so often that I think he may have even grown some new right-hand muscles.

Then I had the opportunity to travel to a foreign country, and this happened.

Look, all I really want to say in a weird, long-worded, mildly erotic way is that I've been a little bolder with sharing my life over the past year. You see, the lesson I learned wasn't really about influencers and the lives they may or may not lead. It wasn't about having or not having someone to snap pics for me and of me.

What this all really meant to me was that in a time of total dissociation from other humans due to the pandemic, I found peace and solace in sharing a bit about who I am.

Just me and my right hand.

And about that freelance writing career, I glossed over a few lines ago. Yeah. We did indeed. Wrote some wicked cool stuff too.

Guess I should call him my "write" hand now, eh?

Now I'm just rambling…