Signs
A beautiful woman was having a full on conversation with someone via her laptop. But the whole thing was happening in sign language. I could have watched her all day. As a Drama person I can honestly say that few people in this world nail facial expressions like those who speak in sign language. At one point the woman was telling her friend about breastfeeding and a crying baby and what looked to me like the biggest letdown of breast milk in the history of the world. All this I could tell from fifteen meters away. It was an enthralling and completely accurate depiction of motherhood done entirely in silence.
The way she ‘listened’ was also one of the most compassionate things I’ve ever seen. She listened with her entire body. Every part of her was absorbing the story and the encouraging little gestures and facial expressions she used while her friend was signing were exactly how we all want someone to listen to our story. There were no interjections or interruptions or changes in subject. These two people were fully thrashing out some big things and like a peeping Tom I stole glances at a conversation that (other than the horrors of new born babies) I knew nothing about.
My new found fascination with sign language has blossomed with the evolution of our ‘family chats’ with Cyril. A friend of mine asked if I could, in my capacity as a Drama teacher, maybe help Cyril out with a more engaging and emotive style of presentation. I told him that that job has already been filled by the sigh language interpreters of his speeches.
If anyone was in any doubt a couple of weeks ago about how pissed off Cyril was that out country had been looted one glance at the interpreter sharing his screen would have affirmed your suspicions. Her face was literally the complete, raw subtext of his very politically correct delivery. She was angry. Her ‘I know what you did last Summer look’ would have brought a hot, prickly sweat to those ringleaders responsible for the looting. It was poetry in facial motion and I loved every moment of it.
While ruminating on the beauty of sign language I started to dig a little deeper into why I am so taken by it. Perhaps it is because I spend my whole life talking and filling up silences that I do not fully appreciate the power of silence. And I do not understand the gravity of a look. And maybe sometimes if I’m quiet I am more likely to get an answer to some of my bigger questions. And let’s be honest the past year and a half has brought on many questions for all of us.
It is also in silence and observation that we can often see things that we missed before. We can see subtext and pain and things that get hidden. And most importantly of all it is in silence and witness that we can hear God.
And God is all about hiding revelations, signs of Himself, in the everyday. Just like the woman in the coffee shop we are able to talk in silence to Him all day if we want to and we know that He will listen with compassion and wisdom.
And so I paid for my coffee and made my way anxiously to the vaccination centre to get my second jab. It was almost four o’clock and cold and the centre was all but empty. It’s a long day when you’re injecting people in a shopping centre car park. I sat down in front of the most wonderfully friendly man who immediately engaged with me in the kindest manner. I told him my concerns and he immediately called a nurse to chat to me. Once she had cleared things up he asked me all the usual things. But I can’t say enough about how his manner and his kindness really put me at ease. When it came to my birthday I gave him the date and he threw up his hands in delight, ‘We were born two days apart!’ He was so incredibly excited about this discovery. Suddenly we were connected, two new born babies causing big letdowns to two fractious, exhausted mothers. And I wasn't afraid anymore.
Let’s call it a sign.
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