The Concept of Left-handedness
is something perhaps only those born with this rare gift / affliction can truly understand. Partly because right handed (or left brain dominant thinking) tends towards reductionist, materialistic thinking patterns which means they think we're making it all up because they can't measure it directly although they know it's true from observation.
You Had to have Been There
Right handed people can't experience what it's like but they secretly know we are a bit different. Any left hander will tell you it's a different experience in life. Often what others find easy, we find more challenging and what the majority find difficult we often accomplish with ease. It's complicated because we end up very convincing at many right handed tasks through learning and divergent thinking.
- Leonardo Da Vinci
Lefties
Lefties are born backwards in a right handed world, designed by right handed thinkers for the majority 90%. Who can blame them? (Some if not all right handed people do not accept there is a significant difference between right hemisphere and left hemisphere dominance.) Science is beginning to shed some light on the phenomenon if not all aspects, like which genes control it and what environmental factors if any contribute.
Research
Although recent research using advanced brain mapping techniques suggest right dominant thinkers (us lefties) do actually differ significantly in the fact that the two hemispheres are generally more connected and we use both sides of the brain simultaneously. This gives several advantages.
- Albert Einstein
We can compare opposing strategies quickly, making us intuitive or good analysts. Analysis is an important component of creativity. It also makes for good leadership skills, fair minded and able to see the merits of both sides of an argument
- Barack Obama
Who Knows ?
Scientist don't really know which genes are responsible for antipodal paw preference but it does run in families. My Dad is a leftie and so am I. You have a 25% percent chance of having a leftie kid if one parent is left handed. I think my 9 week old daughter might be.
- Phoebe Hatjoullis
Adaptive Behaviour
We have to learn to live with this significant challenge so we are forced to learn the ways of the right handers but we also have a different side to us. This is what gives us our edge, we are natural Judo martial artists who also been forced to learn Karate ! (They are right to be afraid) pardon the pun*
- John McEnroe
Creativity
We are often drawn to creative expression partly because of the way the system favours logic and we also like to use a paintbrush because we have freedom to move it in all directions rather than the scrubby awkward way in which we were forced to write, inelegantly scraping the pen across the paper against it's better nature, when handwriting. More scientifically, left handers practice divergent thinking.. call me tangential (but I do love a good sub clause)
- Paul Klee
Disadvantages
We also die younger, reasons are largely unknown but probably more to do with statistical bias due to low numbers in the population. We are more susceptible to mental illnesses and die from electrocution more often, because we touch things with our left hands which leads more directly to our heart strings.
- Marylin Monroe
Sinister
We were persecuted for the most part of the middle ages as SINISTRALS, which is where the word Sinister comes from. we were considered, spooky, occult and with demonic tendencies. Smart Cookies ! who were often forced to use their right hands all the way up to modern times. no wonder they had mental issues
- Joan of Arc
SouthPaw
At certain junctures in history we have been favoured. Boys born left handed would have been considered a certainty for cavalry training because we would approach the enemy with a sword to our left, which they wouldn't expect. The same goes for SouthPaw boxers (Rocky Balboa aka Sly Stallone is actually a Leftie) & racket sports players. Females born left handed would have also fared well in primitive societies. You weren't expecting that crushing blow from a stone axe to your right temple when you tried to grab her from behind ;)
Several Notable Left Handers
Aristotle
Leonardo Da Vinci
Albert Einstein
Henry Ford
Charlie Chaplin
Marylin Monroe
Robert De Niro
Presidents - Garfield Hoover Truman Ford Reagan Bush (Snr) Clinton and Obama !
David Bowie
Kurt Cobain
Jimi Hendrix
Paul McCartney
The Guardian's top 100 Lefties List here <<<
A handful of Stats about lefties
Only 10% of the population are left handed, all other animals are predominantly or totally right handed
Left handers hear differently and can detect rapid changes in sound more easily
Lefties are often a bit more self conscious, combined with divergent thinking, perhaps making us a bit more empathetic
Right dominant thinkers like to drink, possibly because we feel stressed from being in the minority or more likely to drown out all the crap in an overly right handed world, or because we're just wired to be more impulsive and addictive
Disclaimer
If you are reading this and are right handed please do be offended or feel diminished by the greatness of the people in this post. We do love you, you are our mothers, our wives and our husbands, our sisters and brothers. Some presidents were right handed.
Image source
- Leonardo Da Vinci
- Albert Einstein
- Barack Obama
- Phoebe Hatjoullis - Copyright (Outerground)
- John McEnroe
- Paul Klee
- Marylin Monroe
- Joan of Arc
- Rocky Balboa
- George W Bush
special thanks to creative leftie @meanmommy who opened up this discussion after we talked about Stanley Kubrick's use of the single point perspective (my previous post)