Being Left-Handed

http://www.lefthandersday.com/tour7.html

Vocabulary:
Doeth: choosing a religion.

Personal reaction:
It is still a mistery what is the reason why some people, no matter race, age, ethnicity or social status, would be left-handed. What is a fact is that life is not easy for this world wide minority.
On the Internet there are hundreds of sites and web pages dedicated to left handers. One of them states that different researches have demonstrated the existance of a gene which is believed to “make it possible to have a left-handed child”. Since the human brain works “cross-wired”, it is the right hemisphere (the one that controls music, art, creativity, perception, emotions and genius), the one in direct connection with a left hand dominance. As a consequence, more left-handers work in related fields (architecture, ball sports, etc.).
The article also states that the wrong idea that left handers are not as capable of managing tools as right handed people are is just a myth. Left-handers are “forced to use right handed tools and machinery which is completely back-to-front for them”.
The historical background plays a major role on the issue of left handers: different theories support the idea of an ancient right hand preference (“sun worship” and the believe that since “the heart is on the left hand side, a shield would have to be in the left hand to defend it and any weapon therefore had to be held in the right, which became the dominant hand”. Besides, Christianity is also “based towards the right hand”; on the contrary, “the devil is nearly always portrayed as left handed and evil spirits lurk over the left shoulder”. This last fact dderived on the superstition that “you...should...throw spilled salt over your left shoulder to ward them off”. Even the language categorizes the word left as bad (“being left-out, having two left feet”, etc.).
After setting some interesting facts about left handers (eg: “most left handers draw figures facing to the right”; “there is a high tendency in twins for one to be left handed”, etc.), the article focuses on children, and the everyday difficulties they face for being different. The problems arise when children have to learn “basic skills using the wrong tools”. For worse, even with the appropiate tools, left.handers do not escape from the stereotype of “being slow, awkward and clumsy”.
This article is fascinating, for it clearly and simply explains facts that try to make left handed people – and the rest- more aware of how difficult it is to be a minority, and to use daily tools that are not designed for us. On a personal level, I have never been able to use scissors on a proper way, or to write without smudging the paper. So at least now we know that these problems happen to lots of us (still a minority!).