Some things I've been thinking about:

In some parts of the country there are a lot more people with blackened fingernails than in others.

I slammed my finger in a newspaperbox a couple of months ago. My blackened swollen finger was quite the topic of conversation amongg my co-workers. Everyone thought it was urgent that I go to a doctor. I thought that was ridiculous. Lots of people have blackened nails all the time. What's the doc going to say? Yep, you smashed your finger good.

I went home, far from the east coast, over the Christmas break. When I arrived at my grandmother's house there were three people with totally blackenedd fingers or toes. My dad had a blackened finger from slamming his finger in a gate while working the cows. And his toes had just recovered from being stepped on by the horse while working on their feet one day. My cousin had a blackened finger from working on a car (he's a mechanic). My uncle, when he saw my finger, pulled out his own hand to show me a missing pinky tip. He had gotten it caught in a rope while working some cattle.

Suddenly I felt like I really was part of the family.

When I got back to Washington, my colleague said, you know you kind of look like a punk rocker with that one blackened finger. Yeah, I thought, or one of the people out there in the country who still do real manual labor.