By: Nancy Hiller
Posted: 02/21/2012 6:03 pm
When I was 14, my mother took me to a dermatologist to have the row of warts on my right middle finger permanently removed. Two treatments were available. The doctor recommended the more costly, which would leave my hand unblemished. The less expensive option, burning the warts with liquid nitrogen, would cause scars.
"Oh, we're not worried about scars," my mother said. "Nancy's hands will be working hands." I'm not sure where she got this idea, especially considering that I spent more time translating Virgil and Plato than wielding a plane or hammer, but we went with the liquid nitrogen. I sometimes wonder whether her words influenced my early decision to become a cabinetmaker.
