Being Left Handed


One out of every ten people walking down the street is left-handed. Everywhere they go, left-handed people come across tools that were designed for right handed persons.

From scissors to camcorders to screw drivers to hockey sticks to baseball gloves, lefties learn early on that they need to develop skills to live in a world designed for right handed people.

If you are a right-handed person, try this experiment sometime: Grab a scissors with your left hand and try cutting a piece of paper. Don't be surprised if the experience feels extremely awkward.

Thankfully, there are companies that make left-handed scissors, left handed camcorders, and other left-handed tools. But often times left-handed persons find themselves in a situation where they have no choice but to use something designed for right-handed persons.

In ages past, society was not sympathetic to left-handed persons. Young students who preferred using their left hand to write were punished for doing so. Some of these students eventually learned to write with their right hand, but only after enormous effort.

These days parents and teachers are far more accepting and understanding. In almost every school in the world, students who are left handed are allowed to continue using their left hand to write.

Medical researchers have searched long and hard for what causes people to be left handed or right handed. The researchers have concluded that left handed people are left handed for the same reason as brown eyed people have brown eyes. It's just one of those things that shows up in one out of every ten people.

A really interesting question is whether there is any connection between left handed people and creative genius. Some of history's most creative minds have been left-handed.

In the category of art, both Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were left handed. In the category of music, Ludwig van Beethoven was left handed. In the field of science and invention, you find Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein. In the field of motion pictures, Charlie Chaplin.

Bobby Fisher, the modern chess genius, is left handed. So too musical geniuses Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Wynton Marsalis.

Each of the these persons had a mind so exceptional as to be head and shoulders above anyone else in their field. So even though it may be more difficult for a left handed person to live in a right handed world, lefties can know that they are in good company. Beethoven and Einstein had it tough, too.


Phil Shapiro



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Internet: pshapiro@his.com

Belorussian translation

Bulgarian translation courtesy of Cloud Lakes Team

Left Handed Portal




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