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Body Language

Aside from the spoken and written word I use a lot of body language. My face is not naturally expressive and I compensate. In my classes where I am eager to hold my students' attention I will move around the classroom to imitate any motion that we are discussing; I constantly gesture with my fingers to indicate magnitude, small or large.  I've been doing it long enough that I take it for granted.

My first recollection of doing this is a crystal memory. As a graduate student I was standing on a corner waiting for the light to change before crossing. Across the way I saw a car at the front of its lane with a turn signal on that would have led against one-way traffic. There were not many cars out and probably not much would have happened but such things can turn bad quickly and unexpectedly. The car's windows were up, preventing the driver from hearing me, so I stepped next to the one-way stop sign on my corner and pointed to it rigidly while facing the car. The turn signal went off and the driver gave me a sheepish grin, which I returned with a thumbs up.

For me body language can fit into a conversation (gesturing with fingers to indicate magnitude) when in the same field of vision. Apart from conversation I am capable of moving in a fashion that draws attention (often I lapse into a Groucho Marx-style walk with greatly bended knees) or alternating my speed from slow to fast suddenly, disrupting viewers' expectations and thus engaging them more deeply.

For the 2020-2021 academic year my arthritic knee prevented much of this, or at least slowed me down from spontaneous motions. I am grateful yet again for my artificial knee and what it allows me to do.


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