A Salute to Left-handers

Greetings to all left-handers out there! It’s been stated that “left-handers are in their right mind,”  but I guess it depends on who you ask. 

When in a group setting, I like to conduct a poll. Recently, I sat at a table with nine colleagues and observed that three of us were “lefties.” That’s thirty percent. Researchers tell us that approximately ten percent of the world’s population is thought to be left-handed. That means there could be upwards of 700 million lefties around the globe. We are raising the bar!

I’m the middle of seven kids and the only left-hander in the bunch. Statistically, that’s very low. Some time back, I was sitting at a nurses’ station in an assisted living facility. Six nurses sat around me and it suddenly occurred to me that all of us were “southpaws.” What were the odds?  We all high-fived one another and enjoyed a good laugh. 

History supports the fact that  left-handers have “left” an indelible mark on our world.  Thank you, Napoleon Bonepart,  Prince William, Keanu Reeves,  Bill Gates, Babe Ruth, Leonardo da Vinci, Barak Obama, , Morgan Freeman, Mozart, Helen Keller, Neil Armstrong, Mother Teresa, and many others for your contributions. We salute you, our poster children!

I was in elementary school during the early sixties. Some teachers were determined to disengage left-handers and force them to “write right.”  The reasons why were never discussed.  At any rate, my first grade teacher was determined to sway me toward the right. One day her tripod ruler created a welt on my hand. After school my mother noticed the raised, discolored place, and upon hearing how it got there, drove the seven miles to school, took me by the hand and walked me back into my classroom to face my perpetrator.

“Did you hit the back of Roger’s hand with your ruler?” she asked. My teacher proudly replied, “Yes, and I’ll do it again if he doesn’t quit writing with his left hand.” Wrong answer! To say the least, mom was not happy. An indignant Mrs. Loomis replied, “Let me put it this way: “If you do, I’ll come back up here, and I’ll beat YOU with it.”

Mom became my protector and heroine, and I successfully navigated my school years left-handedly. I may hold my paper at a different angle. I may wear ink stains on the side of my hand, caused by rubbing across my paper while writing, and I may slant my letters the wrong way, but all the left-handers in my first grade class scored a victory that day In 1962. 

In case you left-handers don’t know, there is a National Left-Handers Day. It’s August 13. That’s a day I intend to celebrate!