Masao Tong: Talk to The Hand

Masao Tong shares about what he’s learned about the versatility of the hands.

I’ve learned so much from hands. The hands are intricate: 27 bones, 34 muscles, over 100 tendons, and then multiply that by two. They influence and convey our pain, who we are, and most importantly, how we respond to our circumstances.

In middle school, my understanding of the hands was complicated. What started as a simple disagreement over a game ended with me on the ground hearing a friend scream the N-word in my face. His fist on my stomach left me silent. Hands can knock us to the ground; but, the fist also taught me Black empowerment, resilience and self-love. The hands are agents of social change.

Messages of Black resilience spill from raised fists, love from heart-cupped hands, childhood trust from pinky promises, and unity from hands held in solidarity. To gently correct a friend, I say, “talk to the left hand because you know you ain’t right.” But when confronting an adversary, I’m firm: “talk to the hand.”

Now, don’t underestimate the versatility of the hands. The hands can touch; the hands can heal; the hands can love. Even a handshake can tell a story: are they confident and welcoming or cold and withdrawn? From the pulse of a piano to the voice of a violin, the hands make us feel; they touch us. I want to use my hands to heal.

Healing can be as simple as a fist bump or as complex as a medical procedure. I hope my hands will learn to diagnose, to inject, to suture and to cure. In my grandmother’s last days of battling Alzheimer’s, she could neither see nor speak. However, in this emotional moment, love was expressed through touch. We squeezed each other’s fingers for care and comfort, and as the squeezes stopped, her affection gave me closure. In a world where each person is as unique as their fingerprints, our distinct experiences are often shaped by how we use our hands. With a Perspective, I’m Masao Tong.

Masao Tong is from Walnut Creek and is currently writing a memoir about his experience as a patient with a brain illness. He was accepted to an Ivy League medical school at the age of seventeen.