ASL - Grace

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
February 26, 2004

Charles Butler wrote:
> I think one needs a history of the sign to understand.  Originally, 
> when I was learning religious sign, it started with a "g" above one's 
> head to the right, as if pulling "grace" from heaven, going down to 
> one's chest.  The flip is done before the hand moves, not as part of 
> the movement downward. 

Hello Charles, Stuart and Everyone -
Charles...your description above is a totally different sign than what 
Stuart described:

----

 >Stuart wrote:
 >It starts with a 5-hand fingertips together facing outward just in
front of the dominant side shoulder then the hand twists with the wrist
toward the body while moving toward the non-dominant shoulder and ends
up in an open 5-hand that touches the front of the shoulder. My primary
question is how to order the movement symbols when it is a more complex
movement like this?

------

As you can see, Stuart said that the twist happened "while moving"...so 
that is why I thought the twist and the movement should be combined 
into a combination symbol...

I have never seen the sign, nor do I have a video of it, so it is 
impossible from words, to ever get a true feeling of any sign...So 
writing your sign above, Charles, is very different and makes a lot 
more sense to me...it is a little like the sign for God blended with 
your own heart in your chest...like "God to your heart"...that is a 
beautiful sign and I would write it very differently now that I know 
that...

Please forgive my misunderstanding, Stuart...Your writing is fine. If 
you would like to try writing the sign from high up over the shoulders, 
you could create several different combination arrows that could be 
very beautiful...

I can show you, if you would like, and then you can have fun choosing a 
way to write it for yourself - ;-)

Val ;-)