I suggested to a school secretary that she might experience the frustration that a child goes through in the process of learning to write if she tried writing with her left hand. The secretary is right-handed.
To our mutual surprise we discovered that she's ambidextrous, and can write easily – rather legibly, too – with either hand. Few of us are so gifted.
The word ambidextrous really means having two right hands. Latin "dexter" means right, as in dexterity. (But not pathologically right as in the sense of the TV serial killer series. Pardon the gauche alliteration. Not very adroit.)
Latin "sinister" means left, and for centuries southpaws were considered evil. Diabolical. Joan of Arc was a lefty (and an armored crossdresser who heard voices). The devil was a lefty, too; and in some cultures the left hand is used only for toilet ministrations.
Of interest here perhaps is the psychological phenomenon known as automatic writing. Without conscious thinking on the part of the automatic writer, scribbles turn into sentences, sentences into messages. A few such mediumistic writers can use both hands, and, interestingly enough, get two separate messages, one for each hand. Unaware of both messages until read later.
When I went to Burton Elementary School way back when, my desk had an inkwell, and I used a pen with a metal tip to practice my block and cursive lettering. (Today, with computer use and TXTing, handwriting is rapidly becoming a lost means of communication.)
In my grade school if you were left-handed you were in for trouble. (Apple polishing, teacher's would-be pet or not.) Teachers often viewed these social lunkheads as willfully obstinate. They "chose" to use the left hand.
Penalties for student southpaws included a knuckle rap with a ruler, sitting on the offending hand until numb, or having the beast with five fingers tied behind the back. Often a result of this pedagogical torture was a pronounced stammer. Actor Bruce Willis discovered that when he acted his teacher-induced stammer stopped.
(Just to keep the record, er, straight, I'm right handed. My problem as a grade schooler was talking, giggling, gum chewing. For these infractions of World War ll behavior I did time in the cloakroom.)
Tennis champion Martina Navaratilova, who went to school in Czechoslovakia, was luckier. As a child her teacher suggested she try using her right hand to avoid constantly ink staining her left hand fingers. It worked. No doubt this acquired talent later facilitated her aggressive net-charging style and 90 mph serve. (It did nothing for her palimony suit.)
Some social scientists seem to feel that there's a higher than average number of gays who are lefties. Alexander Hamilton, Cecil Beaton, Gary Grant, Greg Louganis, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Hans Christian Anderson, Anthony Perkins, Armistead Maupin, Melissa Etheridge, Cole Porter, Rock Hudson, George Michael, James Baldwin, John Cage, Divine, Harry Hay.
Hay, who was a co-founder of the Mattachine Society, one of the first human rights gay organizations, was forced by his father to use his right hand. His dad whipped him so hard for using his left member that Hay sustained permanent hearing loss in one ear.
As an adult Hay gave up being a conformist. He affirmed his left hand, and for a time also became a member of the Communist Party. How leftist can one get?
According to researchers, lefties can read backwards and upside down better than righties. Not that this is of any particular social advantage in gay bars. Says psychologist Dr. Lauren Harris, it indicates a higher degree of mental flexibility. "Lefties are superior in creativity, tonal memory, spacial ability, originality, and elaboration of thinking."
!yraM, ereht oS !deb ni doog osla er'yehT.
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