Last week my friend Paul put this post on Facebook: “WHY WHY WHY Do we need yet another song in which the DJ tells us to put our hands in the air like we just don’t care?”

I laughed.

Then I got to thinking. (I’m annoying that way.)

Our family room wall features a collage of family photos depicting highlights from the lives of our family over the years:

First at bats:

Successful completion of that double black diamond slope at Kicking Horse, BC:

A triple water ski pass (no hands):

And the joy of a snake wrapped around a neck:

When my son scored his first hockey goal, one of the other fathers (a professional photographer) captured my son’s hand raised in victory AND the hand of the referee raised to signal the goal:

In many of the pictures on our wall, we have raised hands.

The “Because I am a Girl“ ad campaign for Plan International uses the slogan: “Raise your hand if you believe every girl has the right to an education.” A raised hand also signals  desire to take action in a positive way, to take part, or to answer a question.

When we picture people putting the hands “in the air like they just don’t care”,” we imagine people dancing with joyful abandon.

Raised hands indicate victory, positive participation and joyful abandon. All good.

On the other hand (pun intended), if people sit on their hands, or lower their hands, it means they have failed, or aren’t willing to take action, or don’t know the answer and are afraid to venture a guess.

Sometimes, when I’m feeling sort of blah, I sit on my couch and look at the raised hands in our family picture, and I feel better just looking at them. Sometimes,when I’m feeling sort of blah, I raise my hands above my hand, and I feel better just doing it.

Try it, and see how it feels.