DescriptionA short story exploring left-handedness and the difficulties that come with it.
MessageBeing a left sounds cool.
ImageWRTN
I am a lefty, a southpaw, if you will. Living in a right-handed world calls for a willingness to accept some limitations and meet impediments with adaptation.As I sip my hazelnut coffee on wintry mornings, I hold my Christmas gift happily. The deep, white mug features my granddaughter’s artwork on one side and her name on the other. Alas, because I hold the cup in my left hand, my view is of the plain lettering stating her name and grade. Only when I spin it around do I get to admire her kindergarten artwork printed on the supposed front of the mug, but not the front for me.Adding ½ cup of oil to a cake recipe, I am confronted with measurements in the metric system on the glass measuring cup I’ve had since the early ‘80s. I am forced to switch sides and hold the container in my weaker right hand to see the long-faded red line marking ½ cup.For years, I would complain that our scissors weren’t sharp enough until one day I tried my right hand. Voila! Paper cut handily.I’ve trained myself to use the computer mouse with my right hand and prefer grabbing a hot pan with a dish towel rather than an oven mitt with the thumb opening where my pinky finger is.In college, I only dropped one class: Tennis for Beginners. There were probably 30 students spread out in the gym for the class, yet only one lefty: me. The left-handed instructor had trained herself to teach from a righty’s perspective, but after demonstrating a skill, she would announce quite loudly. “Okay, Connie, now watch what I do.”Everyone had to wait while she did her lefty demo just for me as I timidly stood in the back row. Two weeks into the class, I dropped out, embarrassed by being singled out.When it comes to handedness, I am in the minority of people worldwide. Only 10% of us are left-handed, a phenomenon supposedly reflecting how our brains are wired. By the time we are three years old, our dominant hand is established, perhaps due to familial traits. My father was a lefty forced to switch hands by some determined nuns. Several of my siblings are lefties, and most have mixed dominance. My two sons inherited the left-handed gene, and my three-year-old granddaughter is left-handed, too.When I am watching a movie, I always notice when an actor throws a ball or picks up a fork with his or her left hand. A list on Google notes the following are lefties: Goldie Hawn, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Lawrence, Bruce Willis, Jim Carrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Diane Keaton, Tom Cruise, and Nicole Kidman (but I guess that wasn’t enough to keep the marriage together).I have also noticed a left-handed tendency in our country’s leaders: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Famous lefties in the music field include Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Cardi B, Mozart, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Paul Simon.Studies show some advantages for lefties. We can be fast typists, skilled drivers, and may have better recall of events. Multitasking comes naturally, and we are often thought to have “more skills in divergent thinking.” So feel free to question whether I have ADHD when I jump from subject to subject or ponder three approaches to a straightforward task. I am simply a divergent thinker. Nonetheless, I share a trait with my favorite Beatle, Paul McCartney, and that calls for a left-handed high five.