The Hamlet Project

Gestural language sticks around
In much the same way as words, it seems.
Fingers on lips suggest silence
As easily and as clearly now
As they did hundreds of years ago.
Gestures might have a sense of universality.
I would have thought so at one point –
Before I learned that our gesture for “Halt” –
Palm open, up at a right angle
To the arm, held before the body –
This gesture that screams, “Stop”
That has shades of police authority
And the Supremes playing with police authority in the name of love. . .
Is the gesture or “mudra” for peace in Manipur.
Monks can stream down temple steps, with the arms up in this way.
To my American eyes, they almost look like military arms saying “Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop” when in fact they say, “Peace, fear not” one after the other.
When I moved to Italy, I thought Italians just spoke with their hands
That they simply waved their arms more but soon discovered a finger to the nose,
A digging motion with both arms by the hips –
I had to learn the meanings of all these gestures
Just as I had to learn the words.
Language is not just what we say and write and read and hear.