Left Handed in a Right-Handed World
Scientists identify and study different
functions of the left and right halves of our brain. The left brain controls the right side and
the right half controls the left body side.
Thus, the old tired joke that “left-handed people are in their right
minds.”
Moreover, science validates that the right side of the brain influences
and deals with big picture concepts and complex relationships. Some
psychological studies suggest that this helps lefties with multi-tasking and
with dealing with many different kinds of people and personalities. We’re a
versatile group!
Looking at left-handed studies on the internet,
the statistic for being left handed is as low as 8% or as high as 30% depending
on the criteria used. My criterion is
that left handedness means to write with and/or use the left hand for manual
tasks. Studies do not even agree when
hand preference appears. Some
say at birth; others say as late as four years old.
Okay.
First grade. The
teacher shall remain
nameless. She was
was not a favorite.
My paper turned
the wrong way. I
didn't hold the
right. (Remember
those big, fat, over-
sized dark-red pencils?)
And there were those desks
made for right-handed little people. So
there I am, hunched in my desk to get my left hand situated to work, and an
adult hand turns me and my paper to suit her.
This was not an auspicious start to school.
Thank goodness, my father was a leftie who
had been “ruler smacked” to become right handed. (Nobody, not even his mother,
could read his writing which looked like the proverbial dead chicken had walked
across the page.)
The primary grades did not get a lot
better. Good thing I loved to read. Artsy crafty projects were not my strong
suit. My thumb did not fit in the
scissors and their blunt blades did not help cutting either. The only good thing about cutting and pasting
was the smell of the purple mimeograph fluid and that white paste.
A couple of final words about school days. The outside of the left hand will always be dirty – silvery from pencil or smeared with ink.
Left handedness has some advantage in some
sports. Lefties psych out their
opponents with a seemingly “wrong hand” image opposing them. “Southpaws,” as
they are sometimes called, seem to be better than average pitchers. Warren
Spahn, Whitey Ford, Tom Glavine and even Babe Ruth pitched a few left handed
games. To baseball fans, big names!
There is, however, no advantage that I could
find with power tools. [More left handers lose fingers in accidents with tools
than right handers said a report from Baylor University
And then
there are the string musicians. Bless
their hearts. Learn to play right handed
or get your instrument restrung. Those are your options!
We American left handers are luckier though than
those living in Africa and much of the Far East : It is offensive to do anything with your left
hand except in your bathroom. Don’t pass
food or eat with the left hand. Don’t
wave either or hail a cab with the left hand.
You will be considered unclean and carry a cultural stigma like a big
scarlet letter L on your chest.
Annoying, too, are the looks and remarks from
friends, relatives and acquaintances. Yes, if I sit beside you at dinner, I
might knock elbows with you at some point.
I will say, “Sorry,” and you will ask, “Are you left handed?”
This pie chart describes
usual comments better than I.
There is now a National Left-Handers Day
celebrated on August 13. If you, too,
are left handed, know that you are in interesting company: Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Henry Ford,
Mozart, Mark Twain, Fred Astaire, Bill Gates (and John Dillinger, O.J. Simpson, and Fidel Castro) are just a few in a long list of famous names.
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