WWSHS

Dear reader,

when I was in school there was a time when students used many abbreviations. Widely known were HDL (Hab dich lieb – Love you) and HDGDL (Hab dich ganz doll lieb – Love you very much). I don't know how up to date those abbreviations are today. It has been many years since I've seen them used. Now chat abbreviations are more common.

The comprehensive school I went to was a christian one with more or less believing students. One of my class mates had a bracelet bearing the letters WWJD. One of our teachers explained to us eventually that it wasn't half of an internet address or a sort of “broken” one, but the abbreviation for: What would Jesus do?

A while ago I was in the garden and got dandelions and grass for the guinea pigs. It wasn't the first time that I cut myself with the grass. A couple of weeks ago I also cut myself twice with the knifes my father has when I didn't watch out enough cleaning them. Because of that my hands show several marks more or less healed for several weeks now. Thinking about Easter I also made my first ever marmelade (or jam as some of you may call it): daisies-dandelion and the second time only dandelions, but twice the amount. The dandelion flowers have to be pulled for that. The juice of the peduncle is rather bitter and therefore has to be pulled. You want exactly the bitter taste for the dandelion tea, which is supposed to be very healthy. Because of all the cutting and pulling my hands for a while looked rather yellow and brown, even after washing them.

I wonder what Sherlock Holmes would see? The hands of a person would be important to him and insightful. A person for whom well-groomed appearance is important would at least not use their bare hands to work in the dirt or do the gardening without gloves. Depending on their job, women probably would have longer fingernails and maybe have beautifully varnished nails. Someone playing for example the violin or guitar needs rather short fingernails and certain fingers would have calluses from the strings. Kids usually are not that careful eating something. The hands show that quite well. And if a child secretly ate something sweet and forgot to wash their hands after that... The hands of a person are very revealing. If we care to look.

It should be WWSHO – What would Sherlock Holmes observe (or deduce?) not see. Because as he told his friend Dr. John Watson and others so many times: he doesn't see, he observes. Indeed he would not just notice my cut and dirty hands, but deduce that I have been outside having something to do with earth. What else would he specifically be able to tell and correctly deduce?

Until next blog,
sarah