Sarah Kay — Hands — Transcript

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1. 0:02from New York please give a warm Deport
2. 0:04you welcome to 18-year-old Sarah
3. 0:07[Applause]
4. 0:11[Music]
5. 0:14[Applause]
6. 0:14[Music]
7. 0:16K people used to tell me that I had
8. 0:19beautiful hands told me so often in fact
9. 0:21that one day I started to believe them
10. 0:24until I asked my photographer father hey
11. 0:26Daddy could I be a hand model to which
12. 0:28he said no way I don't remember the
13. 0:31reason he gave me and I would have been
14. 0:32upset but there were far too many
15. 0:34stuffed animals to hold too many
16. 0:35homework assignments to write too many
17. 0:36boys to wave at too many years to grow
18. 0:39we used to have a game my dad and I
19. 0:40about holding hands cuz we held hands
20. 0:43everywhere and every time either he or I
21. 0:45would whisper a great big number to the
22. 0:47other pretending that we were keeping
23. 0:49track of how many times we had held
24. 0:50hands that we were sure this one had to
25. 0:52be 8 million
26. 0:542753 hands learn more than Minds do
27. 0:57hands learn how to hold other hands how
28. 0:59to grip pencils and mold poetry how to
29. 1:02tickle pios and dribble a basketball and
30. 1:04grip the handles of a bicycle how to
31. 1:06hold old people and touch babies I love
32. 1:08hands like I love people they are the
33. 1:10maps and Compasses with which we
34. 1:12navigate our way through life some
35. 1:14people read palms to tell your future
36. 1:15but I read hands to tell your past each
37. 1:18scar marks a story wortht telling each
38. 1:20calloused Palm each crack knuckle is a
39. 1:22Mist Punch or years in a factory now
40. 1:25I've seen Middle Eastern hands clenched
41. 1:27and Middle Eastern fists pounding
42. 1:29against each other like War drums each
43. 1:30country sees their fists as Warriors and
44. 1:32others as enemies even if fists alone
45. 1:35are only hands but this is not about
46. 1:38politics no hands are not about politics
47. 1:40this is a poem about love and fingers
48. 1:42fingers interlocked like a beautiful
49. 1:44zipper of prayer one time I grabbed my
50. 1:47dad's hand so that our fingers interlock
51. 1:49perfectly but he changed position saying
52. 1:51no that handhold is for your mom kids
53. 1:54high five but grown up we learn how to
54. 1:56shake hands you need a firm handshake
55. 1:57but don't hold on too tight but don't
56. 1:58let go too soon but don't hold down for
57. 1:59too long but hands are not about
58. 2:01politics when did it become so
59. 2:03complicated I always thought it simple
60. 2:05the other day my dad looked at my hands
61. 2:07as if seeing them for the first time and
62. 2:09with laughter behind his eyelids with
63. 2:10all the seriousness a man of his humor
64. 2:12could muster he said you know you've got
65. 2:14nice hands you could have been a hand
66. 2:18model and before the laughter can escape
67. 2:21me I shake my head at him and squeeze
68. 2:23his hand 8,
69. 2:262,754 thank you
70. 2:31from new