Aug 13: International Left-Handers Day
We focus on just one special day today, to help us understand those who are “different,” and some of the challenges they face. -Editor
This day is observed annually on August 13 to celebrate the uniqueness and differences of left-handers, approximately seven to ten percent of the world’s population, or about 708 million persons! Research indicates that men are more likely to be left-handed than women.
First observed in 1976 by Dean R. Campbell, founder of the Lefthanders International, Inc., the day was “declared” official in 1997, to raise awareness of the advantages and disadvantages these face in a predominantly right-handed world.
It wasn’t always “cool” to be left-handed. Educators and physicians used to advocate “retraining” left-handed children to use their right hands. Some of the methods they used in this “retraining” were cruel, such as tying children’s left hands down so they couldn’t move them. Or training them to be ‘ambidextrous, which literally means having ‘2 right hands’! Forcible conversion of handedness produces what psychologists call a “misplaced sinister,” and these unhappy people have miserable childhoods. Teasing by right-handed children and the sense of being different from others produces bitter humiliations, inhibitions, frustrations and self pity. Left-handed people seem more prone to depression and psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia; and more likely to suffer from stuttering and dyslexia.
The notion of left-handedness as wrong is embedded in our language. For example, the adjective “sinister” comes from the Latin “sinistra” or “left hand.” In French, gauche means “left” and also, “awkward,” “clumsy” and “socially unrefined.” The word ‘left’ still has negative connotations: bad, dark, weak, incorrect. Right is thought to be good, saved, beautiful and correct.
Being a lefty can be very inconvenient. Most things are designed for right-handed people. Classrooms can be truly exasperating for lefties: those arm-contorting, wrist-wrenching desks, three-ring binders and spiral notebooks built for right-handed writers. It is far easier to pull a pen or pencil instead of pushing it across a sheet of paper. Drawing a straight line may sound simple, but it is more difficult if you’re doing it by pushing the pen instead of pulling it. Calligraphy pens and brushes, computers, even a pair of scissors were specifically designed for right-handed people; so also most tools, electronic gadgets, musical and surgical instruments, fixtures, cars. Toilet paper dispensers are virtually always on the right, as are the handles on most water fountains.
The left-handed face more challenges in learning to write. In many languages, including English, everything is written in left-to-right progression, which favours the right-handed. When writing with the right hand in left-to-right progression, it is easier to see every letter that has just been written, and there is no need to worry about smeared ink because the hand naturally moves away from the drying ink as the writing continues.
Why are people left-handed? Some blame it on genes, or complications at birth. Children do not understand the difference between left and right until they are about six years old. However, a baby at its seventh month of life begins to favour one or the other hand. Until that age they are bi-manual. The right and left hands are not mirror images of each other. They take on different functions and tasks. In general, the dominant hand is responsible for fine-precision manipulations, and the non-dominant does the holding or steadying. For instance, when people clap their hands, most will cup their non-dominant hand and strike it with their dominant hand.
It’s high time to recognize the left-handed. They seem to be better at 3D perception, thinking and multi-tasking. These include luminaries such as Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Pablo Picasso, Napoleon Bonaparte, Albert Einstein, Queen Victoria; US Presidents: John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama; celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Bob Dylan, Oprah Winfrey, Julia Roberts and Lady Gaga; musicians like Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix. (Michelangelo’s fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel shows Adam receiving life from God through the left hand).
So, if you’re left-handed, grab your left-handed cup and make a toast to all left-handers, everywhere!
There even seems to be an Association for the Protection of the Rights of Left-handers. One of these “rights” is campaigning for the use of the left hand in taking oaths and saluting!
Sr Esme da Cunha FDCC
To subscribe to the magazine, click Subscribe
