The right -left tool for the job, and I can’t use any of them!
It’s a Right Handed World
There’s no doubt about it-it’s a right handed world. From the way doors open, how we take off the top of a can and do gardening work with tools, everything is geared to the 90% of right handed people. The remaining 10% of us lefties (yes I am one) have to deal with all sorts of potential obstacles daily.10%
The10% percent of left handed folk would be a lot less if overzealous teachers from the very recent past had their way. My experience of a primary school teacher who forced me to write with my right hand culminated in my speech disappearing after a spell of stuttering and then three weeks off school to get my voice back. It was only then that the reason for my muteness became apparent. I was surprised that the teacher was on her early twenties. This was a long time ago in the 60’s but I have heard stories of the same things happening as recently as 1990 in Ireland. Julie’s left handed dad still only writes with his right hand because of school.I have never had any problems with right handed tools and equipment. I suppose it’s because it’s what I grew up with. Left- handed equipment has been available for a long time though. I remember my first experience with a left -handed golf club. I didn’t have a clue what to do with it, the same as left handed footballs ( my excuse for being rubbish at football) ; I never got to grips with them either Like many lefties though I did excel at art in school- artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo , Raphael , Pablo Picasso , Rembrandt were all left handed so maybe that means the Ninja Turtles were too. It has been said that left handed people are more dextrous, we were also very useful in combat as the opponent would assume you would go for them with the right arm with a sword. Mensa has over 20% of people that are lefties too which is above average.
Handshake
Julius Caesar was left-handed and instructed all of his Roman subjects to adopt the right-handed handshake. Maybe this was because it left his weapon hand free when greeting people. Similarly it is thought that a reason for preferring the right-hand greeting is that this generally was the weapon hand and clasping them together allowed neither party an advantage on meeting for the first time. Interestingly Lord Baden Powell chose the left-hand for the Scouting handshake. Two theories exist. One that the left hand is nearer to the heart and the second is that using the non-weapon hand was a sign of trust. Either way I still get confused when I am shaking hands.Sinister
The Latin word for describing left handed people is 'sinister' (right-handed is dexter - hence why we have the word dexterity referring to the ability to use hands) Being left handed does have a few disadvantages when it comes to writing, we do tend to smudge the page when we have a free flowing pen. Thankfully it’s not as big a problem as when fountain pens were used. There are left handed pens available but I tried one once and again couldn’t get to grips with it. There are also left handed rulers on the market with the digits running from right to left. As a left hander, I also find it very difficult to use the mouse on the computer with the left hand as I am so used to operating it with the right hand.House and Garden
I recently did a lot of work to our house, putting in new doors, plug sockets, light switches and electrical appliances. It wasn’t until we moved in that my lads started to complain that everything was back to front. I had inadvertently made the house a left- handed paradise. There is a long list of leftie gardening tools on the market. Secateurs, hoes, sieves, belt storage pouches, grilling tools for the barbeque, saws with left -handed grips, lawn edge cutters and scissors. I can’t use any of them although they could make some left handed gardeners lives a lot safer having the right left tool for the job.
Cesare Lombroso a 19th-century Italian criminologist famously spoke of “Left-handedness being a stigma of degeneracy”. Such statements have thankfully long since disappeared from the views of the world, and it is worth remembering that, if ever we are on the receiving end of any derogatory comments from a right handed person, the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body, and the right side of your brain controls the left side of your body; so only left handed people are in their right mind!
