I am lefthanded. I am curious to know more about the conseqeunces of being lefthanded…of course there have always been speculations about whole being left handed affects brain-functioning and creative ability and sequencing…but is there any ‘significant’ difference between lefthanded and righthanded folk and those who are ambidextrous. I am dylsexic also - well if you actually acknowledge that such a condition exists - i hold in with great skepticism.
I would be interested to here some thoughts on the issue of being left handed and its effect on cognitive functioning, creative thinking and sequencing skills.
Yes I remeber that one about ‘lefties’ being of the devil and children with red hair and a whole host of other superstitions.
Yes, I just recently discovered that life expectancy is a little lower…but again…I wonder if it is significant…i.e. I am pretty certain that many lefhanded folk live equally, if not longer, than the average right hander…
I do think lefthanded folk do have an inclination to thinking very imaginatively…in whatever endeavour they undertake they will approach it quite creatively…distinctly soo perhaps…
I’m all fucked up. I write right-handed, but I shoot pool left-handed, and I used to shoot a rifle left handed as well. Each arm is stronger than the other in certain respects. At arm-wrestling, my left arm is far stronger. At most other tasks, my right arm is more coordinated, and has more fore-arm strength. I’m left footed naturally, and teaching myself to use my right foot while playing the drums was hell.
As a lefty, I found it to be an advantage in that I had to learn how to use my right hand, so I ended up sort of a ‘learned ambidextrous’ person. Just a couple of irritating issues, my handwriting looks like hell, and while I can bat left or right, I couldn’t swing a left-handed golf club to save me.
Just an observation; the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, so it follows that only those who are left handed are in their right minds!
I consider myself left-handed also, even though I write and eat with my right. To some extent I am ambidextruous, but I largely prefer my left hand, because I use it more often in daily affairs and feel I have more strength in it. I am also left footed at football; I rarely shoot with my right.
I think Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and a lot of other great, creative artists were left-handed, plus my favorite cinema figure, Charlie Chaplin. In football the greatest names were also left-sided, and here I mention Pele (he was very good with both legs, 'tis true), Maradona and Cruyff.
I understand that left-handers are more predisposed to mental illness, like paranoia or scizophrenia, although scientists are uncertain about that and so am I.
Edit:
I looked up ‘left-handed’ on Google and I found this site : indiana.edu/~primate/left.html , which seemed very interesting. Apparently, Jack the Ripper was also left-handed…
[size=75]draws the curtains and frightfully checks if the door is closed[/size]
Shhh… not here… they’re listening…
Anyway, I have one question : are the British driving regulations designed to favour the left-handed people ? I haven’t got a driving license yet, but I can say that changing gear with my left while contemplating the right lane of the road seems more comfortable than mirror placed controls…
Driving issues? I dunno. We have the opposite here in the states, and I never had any problems with right-left as long as they stayed off the sidewalks and I was in the front seat…
The left side of the road stems from Medieval days when the knights would joust with a lance in their right hand and the lance would be held across to the left side of the horse. Also, the right hand hand shake stems form men making sure the the person they were greeting did not have a weapon in the right hand as most are right handed.
yeah there’s a story in the bible about that, a guy going to a king with his sword strapped to his right leg where he could get it left-handed and he got in because the guards only checked his left leg.
Looking into the life-expectancy thing a little more deeply, it turns out that the study which everyone quotes has been discredited, so it’s probably not true!
