What does it feel like?

This is inspired by an auspicious anniversary that just happened:

 

Origami is the art of paper folding.   Origami starts with a sheet of paper, generally a square one.  The artist takes this, the ultimate blank canvas, and manipulates it into wherever their mind leads.  As a process it is almost hypnotic to watch, the creation of structure where before there was only uniformity.  While many conventions do not allow cutting of the paper, some do.  But even when cutting is allowed, its use is judicious and purposeful.

 

In the end, in the hands of someone skilled, you get art.

 

If you look at the paper and the end product, they are structurally very different.   You may hold in your hand a fine, fragile unicorn that was once a past due notice for your power bill.  At the most basic molecular level, they are identical but functionally they are very different.  Nothing has changed at all, but the meaning has totally transformed.

 

Hold your hand out, fingers stretched.  Now touch the back of your forefinger with a pencil.  Remember what that feels like.  Now clench your hand into a fist and touch that same spot.  What was once the back of your finger is now considered the underside of your fist.  The nerves never changed but the apparent function of the hand is totally different.  The nerve was never severed and so you sense the touch in exactly the same spot.

 

It has now been several years since my own personal surgical origami.  And do you know what?

 

It still feels like me.