Digitus impudicus...

A gesture I actually would like to be able to use more often is “the finger”. I would love to be in a situation where I could "flip the bird" once more. I can't recollect when I last used it; I mean really used it. I imagine I use it quite often at football games, but the judge who often is the intended target hasn't as of yet, and for obvious reasons, seen me giving it. I also, even more pathetically, use it when I feel aggravated in front of the TV.

I would however much more like to give it up front to a person. I think I would like that very much, to recapture the times when we as kids walked around giving it to all and everybody. I imagine it would feel liberating, in an obnoxious and rebellious kind of way. I guess, actually, that what it really comes down to is that you, from time to time, feel the want to be a kid again.

I started thinking about "the finger" when I saw one of the top politicians in Sweden, Lars Ohly, giving it to a political adversary on a morning show a few days ago. Watch the clip here. Even though I’m no big fan of Lars Ohly (he’s a damn communist what ever he nowadays says) I felt that it was quite funny of him, in a very immature and stupid way, to give the finger on live TV.

The thing about giving the finger is that it’s somewhere between a minor and major insult. It’s somewhere between getting neglected and receiving a fist to the jaw. It’s severe, but not severe enough to cause you harm. And it can be done silently.
I do it like the kid almost exclusively at football games; just as the little kid a two posts ago.