We are talking ethics in one of the classes I am teaching this semester. There are 11 students in that class, and last week we discussed the symbol of the hand in our differing cultures. Give me your hand in marriage. Raising a hand to swear I will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. The handshake, palmistry, praying, hand holding, hello + goodbye in the same gesture with the hand. Then we created The Hand Project. The idea: Interview people about their ethics, their principles. Engage them in a conversation about what they hold to be true in their deepest center. Then ask them to choose the one principle or value that is most important to their lives and write it on their hand. Any language. A word, phrase or sentence. The students are collecting the images, and in the spring, we will study them for what they might tell us and make an exhibition.
The assignment includes each of the ethics students also participating. Here is what eight of them had to say. From top to bottom: Inna, Asipa, Usha, Batyr, Masha, Lynn, Sergei, Ekaterina.
untidy exuberances 