Spinning Pins

What about the pin in sign language, when a person signs “I” by pointing a finger at her own body?

As time passes and the person grows and changes location, the pin travels. But it is remarkably stable in relation to what it signifies. The finger is always with the person. The sign communicates more directly than the English word “I.”

It is a fixed point, even as the object of its communication—the person who points and is pointed to—undergoes rolling, bewildering changes.