Left-handed comments

Evidently, there was no left-handedness remaining when I became the youngest member of the Loxley family. Both of my sisters are left-handed. The closest I could come to it was to write back-handed with my right hand. I asked June why my siblings were left-handed while neither parent had the trait. She informed me that there was a time when you were not permitted to be left-handed.In fact, according to her and my research material, the left hand would be tied behind the back requiring a child to learn to be right-handed. It evidently wasn't permitted until my sister Peggy was in school. I decided to check into this history of the left hand.

There was a time when left-handers were thought to be sinister or wicked. There were times when I was growing up that I was sure this was true; however, research has discounted all of that falderol. Only one in ten people are born left-handed. There are more men than women who are of the same sort. Research points to some complex collaboration between environment and genes that causes this southpaw event. Evidently, lefties have more left-handed family members. This lead me to ask the question of my sister why neither of our parents were left-handed. This brought up the fact that during their time, it was not allowed. My mother had beautiful writing. My dad's writing was atrocious. It weaved across the page and was so small that you had to get closer to the page to read it. Yep, Dad was probably left-handed.

My sisters reside in the ranks of many famous people: many US presidents, Helen Keller, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Alexander the Great, Jim Henson, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Fred Astaire, Mark Twain, HG Wells, Lewis Carroll, Prince William and his dad, Neil Armstrong, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Picasso, Mozart, Beethoven, Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria, Joan of Arc, Marie Curie and many, many more. Thank goodness, no one decided to tie back their left hands. I found an interesting note that Einstein learned to speak late, had problems in almost every subject in school and was frequently labeled as being backwards. 

Many different cultures viewed left-handers in a good way. Incas thought left-handers were capable of healing and possessed magical abilities. Zuni's believed left-handedness signified good luck. Having left-handed sisters has definitely been good luck for me….and, no, June, you do not have magical abilities.

June told me that when she took a calligraphy class, she had to turn the paper upside down in order to keep the ink off of her hand. It is impossible to write from left to right without dragging a hand across the paper of already written words. I know because in writing back-handed as a right-handed girl, I often had pencil rubbings across the side of my right hand as I dragged it across my paper turned sideways. Always wiped out the paragraph above the line of print. 

We all seem to have our own map when we are born. We cannot alter the makeup of the human body. We are different. There is no pattern that stamps us all out the same. And, we are all sent to this earth with love from He who created us. We are born with our own recipe made up for us in the womb. If we alter that recipe, perhaps alter the not only the future of a child but perhaps even the future of mankind. Perhaps one day this judging of what is viewed wicked, the prejudice that once followed left-handers, will fall away as we accept one another just as we are when we enter this earth. 

Words from a back-handed, right hander.