Today is International Left-Handers Day...Hooray! I am one of the 10% of people who ends up seated at a corner at the Thanksgiving table to avoid elbow-fencing with my next door neighbor. Manual can-openers, punch ladles, spiral-bound notebooks, and scissors laugh at us.
But maybe the joke is on them. We are more likely to be better at multi-tasking than righties, tend to be more creative and better problem-solvers and have a distinct advantage in some sports (that would NOT be me in the last group). Some studies say that we score higher on intelligence tests.
All that aside, it isn't easy being a lefty. Most environments just aren't set up for us. Remember those little half-desks in most high school and college classrooms. They were designed for you to just lay your right hand on your notebook to take notes. You could always spot the lefty (me!) twisted in her seat like a contortionist to reach that little mini-desk. I once had a professor storm over during an exam, convinced I was reading my classmate's test results because I wasn't facing front. When he realized what was happening HE MOVED MY DESK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE EXAM so I would be facing the wall. I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me at that point.
As an adult, it hasn't become much better. If businesses lock one of their double side-by-side glass doors to control access, they usually lock the left door, figuring that people will reach out with their right hand to open the remaining open door. Not me. My left hand reaches out, expecting a functional result from the door handle and, since I am usually moving quickly, I end up with a painful and humiliating vertical face plant against the glass door window pane. Lesson learned? Not necessarily. Even a sign that says "Use other door" is no guarantee of a repeat performance.
But I'm in some very distinguished company with my left hand orientation. Five of the last ten Presidents were left-handed: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Gerald Ford. Ronald Reagan was left handed but was forced to write right handed. Gerald Ford was left-handed, but switched back and forth. Prince William of Britain is left-handed, as was Winston Churchill. Some of the most talented entertainers of past and present are in the club: Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Lady Gaga, and Oprah Winfrey are in our club. Historical members include Einstein, DaVinci and Michelangelo. We're a pretty elite group.
But we haven't always been recognized and lauded. The latin word for left is Sinistra (as in "Sinister"), as opposed to Dexter (as in "Dextrous") for right...that should tell you the prevailing opinion of our situation back in the days. Also the French term for left is Gauche, not exactly a compliment. Lefties were considered odd at best and demonic at worst. Some of our fellow club members were considered witches and hanged or burned at the stake. As late as the mid-1900's, lefties were "cured" of their affliction by being forced to convert to right-handedness. School children were taught to write with their left hand tied behind their back.
I went to Catholic School in the fifties and early sixties. Back in 2006 I wrote a blog post about learning to knit as a lefty. It devolved to an essay on my experiences with the Sisters of Mercy (a major misnomer for many of them) and my experiences navigating a righthanded world as a school kid. It was at times harrowing and other times just plain bizarre. Now, of course I can look back at it and laugh. Dealing with Marching Practice and Square Dancing with Sister Mary ("Nikita") Cleta and the handwriting debacle were straight out of a sit-com. The link is Your Other Left.
Being left-handed really doesn't define me that much. I've learned to navigate in a right-handed world fairly well. But every once in a while something pops up to remind me of my uniqueness. When my grandson was born, a wonderful friend sent me a mug that says "My favorite people call me Grandma". To read it I have to drink my coffee with my right hand...A small sacrifice which I make each morning most willingly!
Cheers to all you Lefties out there! Enjoy your day!
