Driving for . . .

Driving for Jesus . . . Driving for Jesus . . . Making all the lights! (song from my childhood I haven’t really thought of in a long while)

On my way home from work this afternoon, I was sitting in a line of vehicles at a stoplight with nothing to do but wait for the light to turn green and I looked in my rear view mirror to watch the woman in the car behind me. She had on one of those hands free on-ear cell phone devices. You know the kind that makes you look like one of the Collective Borg with a hive mind from Star Trek. It wasn’t obvious at first but she was talking someone’s ear off, and there was nobody in the vehicle with her. The emotions were mixed with what looked like an argument at first which is what brought her to my attention in the first place.

The funny thing was that she was using hand gestures . . . very actively. That got me thinking . . . what are hand gestures in communication really used for? Especially with no one there in the car to observe them.

I know that when I am talking with people I tend to use my hands and have been told that I am ‘expressive’ when I talk sharing my enthusiasm on many subjects. I am not sure if I make gestures while in my rig other than those visual signals I may sometimes give to those idiots who can’t drive or must put makeup on as they mindlessly make their way on our roads.

I know that sometimes hand gestures are used for real purposes: to give an example of length, a spatial visualization or something to demonstrate a movement or an action. Everyone likes to play the air guitar or air drums, especially in the car. But it seems that very often, they really don’t add to the meaning of the conversation, save maybe emphasis sometimes. The woman on the cell phone behind me was a prime example of meaningless hand gestures. The person on the other end of the phone couldn’t even see them. She looked like an idiot or demented person as she went through the emotional gamut of anger, idiocy, then to laughter. She continued to drive behind me for several miles including several turns and she continued her hands free conversation.

Did I mention hands free . . . Both hands were constantly off this way and that . . . it must have been her knees which were steering her car as both hands were constantly out the window or up in the air waving wildly.

So, in reference to the kind of hand gestures we make that don’t directly mean anything, why do we do it?

How were we taught it?

To what purpose does it serve?

What makes us gesture when nobody is there to see it?

Just some things to think about.

Ice

* Disclaimer: No hand gestures were used in the writing of this post.