He released my hand, so I could do it by myself, but it turned out I wasn’t doing it right. He demonstrated: more vigorous, more rhythmic, harder, slower. At first, I wanted to do a good job, but I soon grew demoralized. It felt like I was missing too much information. Couldn’t he do a better job himself? What was the point of delegating it to someone who would do a worse job? A twinge of pain shot through my palm. What if I got repetitive strain injury again, like with the gardening catalog?
