In Praise of Opposable Digits

Yeah, I'm an old guy on Medicare and I have arthritis. Jesus. You don't realize how much you need the thumb on your dominant hand until you lose the use of it. But that's the way it goes. Like the song says, "You don't miss your water until your well runs dry." But rather than wallow in my misfortune, I will seize (figuratively) this opportunity to share my one idea about evolutionary biology. It seems to me that it was the development of opposable digits that enabled primates to climb and live high up in the jungle's tree canopy. What this did was give them a high level of security relative to the jungle floor. Thus liberated from always being fearful, wary, and on the defensive, they now had more opportunity to engage in non-survival activities such as play. And here, with play, is the generative source of the ever-increasing creativity that characterizes humanity's journey from the tree canopy to the tribal campfire to the highly technological and diverse civilization we find ourselves in now, and which will morph beyond comprehension in no time flat. Maybe an old guy like me will cope with this inevitability better if I nurture that original spirit of play.