Left Handers' Day!! An ode to south paws…

I have just learned that today, August 13, is International Left Handers’ Day. Launched in 1992 by the Left Handers Club, it is one way to raise awareness of the disadvantages and advantages of being a left-handed person. In many places events are held to celebrate the day with festivities like left-handed tea parties, sports events and letting right handers see what it is like to be a lefty for a day! It illustrates the ways being a left-handed individual is more difficult for a person in a right-handed world!

When reading about this subject I was surprised to learn in some cultures left-handed people were once thought to be evil. Also, I’ve learned Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine de Beauharnais were both left-handed, making them perhaps the most famous couple who were both ‘south paws’. Check out sites online about left-handed people to see just how amazing some of these facts are! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness  theweek.com/…/5-surprising-facts-about-left–handed–people  www.lefthandersday.com/

As a left-handed child I remember problems with composition books (that darn spiral was on the left…ever try writing with your hand above and over that thing…), scissors (yup, I tried every way possibly…try cutting with your thumb in the side for your fingers and your fingers in the thumb position…can we say uncomfortable), three-ring binders (same problem as with composition books multiplied by at least ten), school desks (these were made for kids that were right handed…I remember sitting practically facing the right wall just to be able to use those desks), and so many more items. Even that #2 pencil…we lefties would be left with the edges of our palms covered in a dark smear from our hand trailing over all the words we’d written.

My mother was ‘changed’ as a child from being left-handed to right-handed. It was often done back then, sometimes because it was thought to aid in a child’s development to be right-handed, also sometimes due to superstition.

Today though, I’d like to share some names of left-handed people who made it in this right-handed world:  Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Queen Victoria of England, Prince William of England, Allen Funt, F. Lee Bailey, Sir Paul McCartney, Neil Armstrong, H. G. Wells, Natalie Cole, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Don and Phil Everly, Seal, George Burns, Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Tom Cruise, Steve McQueen, Danny Kaye, Barack Obama, Alistair Campbell, James “Gentleman Jim” Corbett, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, Sarah Jessica Parker…….whew, the list goes on and on.

Have a wonderful day…try using that left hand at dinner tonight…could you do it?

KW