I am left-handed. Being a lefty in a right-handed world can be terribly confusing.
Most things are designed for righties. So we try to adapt. Another problem is that since we are so used to seeing the right being used the left does not look correct either.
The Latin word for left-handedness is sinistral. It comes from the word sinister which is what we think of as bad.
For many years if a child showed a preference for using the left hand teachers would insist that they use their right hand instead. That caused problems for so many people who actually became no-handed.
As I grew up the only other lefty I knew was my uncle. He is three years older than me.
When he started school the teachers trained him to write with his right hand. His handwriting is illegible.
When I started school my mother told the teacher that under no circumstances should she try to change me.
Then Mom taught me how to slant the paper I was writing on. A righty's paper is slanted so the top is toward the left. It stands to reason that the opposite works for a lefty.
Because of that my hand does not curl over the top of my paper. The only problem I have is the lefty's curse... ink or graphite staining the side of my hand.
You would be surprised at how many famous people are known as lefties. I am about to bore you with a partial list.
Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, Gordon Ramsey, Mother Theresa, David Bowie, Rinfo Starr, Paul, McCartney, Julius Caesar, Judy Garland, Harpo Marx, Spike Lee, Madonna, Annie Lennox, Aristotle, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Matt Groening, Marie and Pierre Curie as well as their daughter Irene and her husband Frederic Joliot Curie... WHEW...Ty Cobb, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, Sandy Kofax, Ted Williams, Emma Thompson, Helen Keller, Mozart, Joan of Arc, Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, Morgan Freeman, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, 8 presidents, and Napoleon.
There are so many more. You can look them up.
Two of my four children are lefties.
Now you know more about lefties than you ever dreamed you would.
Lefties are wonderfully odd. In badminton, that oddness often gives them an early advantage while their opponents scramble to adjust.
ReplyDeleteThat is true of many sports. Boxing comes to mind. In the United States most baseball diamonds are built so the sun is to the left side of the park. That is where the term southpaw originated.
DeleteHow well I remember the teachers making the left-handed kids use their right hands! I felt so sorry for them and thought to myself that it just could NOT be the right thing to do! I am right-handed myself and thought, how hard it would be for me to use my left hand.
ReplyDeleteIt is wonderful that you understand our plight.
DeleteMy wife and I are both right-handed, both of our sons are right-handed, and our daughter is left-handed. All have turned into successful human beings.
DeleteI always wondered why my lefty classmates weren't taught to turn the page the other direction (mirror image of righties, as it were) but they were taught to leave the paper alone and crook their hands over the top of the page, which seemed unnecessarily awkward to me. My idea seemed much more natural and intuitively obvious. I guess I was ahead of my time as far as he education world of Texas was concerned.
The Latin words are sinstra (left) and dextra (right) -- leading to the English words sinister and dextrous, dexterity. Doesn't seem fair.
As with many other minorities lefties are expected to adapt. And we have. For some reason I did not mention that many members of the royal family of England are left-handed.
DeleteAlthough I am right handed, there was a time when I tried to write with my left hand, sadly without any lasting success or readable writing.
ReplyDeleteThen you can understand why it is so difficult for a person to have to change the hand they write with.
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