Southpaw Living

In honor of National Lefthander's Day, I feel it my duty to dedicate blog-space to the southpaw experience. I am one of the 10 per cent of the world's population that can claim left-handedness. I am also part of the first generation that wasn't forced to be right handed. My uncle should proudly pen with his left hand, but my grandmother did what society mandated and saved him from doing the Devil's work. Even today, I still experience Southpaw persecution: I cannot eat with my left hand while in Indonesia - a country where eating with your hands is common. The left hand is considered unclean (I'll not get into why, but it involves the bathroom) and should not touch food. I had to sit on my left hand during meals for the first few months in my new home so as not to offend my friends or inadvertently spark an international-relations crisis. Even when I can use cutlery, I'm exiled to end of the table, where my elbow cannot interfere with you right-handers. Don't even get me started about trying to find a left-handed desk. 

Left-handedness even affects the brain, or at least I'm a firm believer that it does. Here are things I blame on being left-handed:

Inability to give directions (interestingly, I mix up my left and right in another language as well as in English), childhood mispronunciations (lemonwellon/watermellon, panshoe/shampoo, psgetti/spagetti), misspelling, delayed shoe-tying ability, flexible ear cartilage, missing-my-big-chance-with-the-Rockettes-because-I-couldn't-tell-my-left-foot-from-my-right-foot-during-dance-class, excessive palm sweat, letter reversals (particularly b/ds), adult mispronunciations (I call it vowel dyslexia), frequent board-writing smudges, fear of heights, sloppy handwriting, gear shifting amnesia, and gravy boat accidents.

Of course, it's not all bad. To balance out my suffering, I also get to be "right-minded." This means that I'm more creative and artsy. This is true. I have a pretty steady sketching hand with which I like to do henna and draw tattoos for my siblings. I can choreograph dances with some success. My creative writing is not bad. And, I have a knack for visual layout (i.e. I rock power point). Being that I'm not totally left-hand dependent (I can do everything but write, eat, and bowl right-handed), I can enjoy the more pragmatic left-mindedness. I am a supreme list maker, for instance. 

For good, bad, and befuddled: Here's to you, Southpaws of the world!