We South Paws

Currently 90% of the world wide population is right-handed. Over the years I've learned that animals are equally right and left-pawed, however, it is only humans who demonstrate a gaping difference. Generalized, basic knowledge, says that, left-handed folks function with a dominant right hemisphere brain. The right side of the brain is said to be the source of dreams, art, music, and feeling. Lefties are often thought to excel in areas of art and mathematics, while right-handed individuals are supposedly superior in areas of language and speech. Most of us know this.

A recent New York Times article, clarifies that, "for right-handed people, language activity is predominantly on the left side. Many left-handers also have left-side language dominance, but a significant number have language either more evenly distributed in both hemispheres or else predominantly on the right side of the brain." I think it's safe to say that one's environment and intelligence level can have an impact on one's brain functioning.

I am left-handed and I do not consider myself to be particularly artistic. I write poetry and I dance, but cannot draw, paint, or sculpt. I have never had any success with math, despite the use of equip math tutors in my Jr. High and High School years. Since then, I have not developed other artistic skills although I am drawn to artistic people and art itself. Music, film, paintings, sculpture and yes poetry and dance, are things that I am drawn to.

In my adulthood I have come across many who actually marvel at the fact that I am left-handed and have voiced that they too wished they were left-handed. I do not consider left handedness to signify uniqueness other than the fact that most of the world is right-handed and therefore I stand out. I can't even begin to tell you how often I've heard the words, "Oh, you're left-handed?" I'm sure most left-handers can tell you the same.

And really, being left-handed may not be so grand. According to International Children's Education, researchers have explored the idea that left-handedness is due to an abnormality in the brain. It is suggested that a neural defect, caused by a diminished blood supply to the left hemisphere occurs during fetal growth.
Research has suggested that left-handed individuals are more likely to be develop schizophrenia, alcoholism, dyslexia, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis and mental disabilities. Left-handers supposedly die nine years earlier than the average Joe and Jane.

According to a new book entitled, The Puzzle of Left Handedness, the on going rumor that left-handers die early is most likely a myth. Author Rik Smits, asserts that if being left handed was truly a death sentence, doctors and patients alike would fear left-handedness as if it were a real affliction.

It was psychologist Sanley Coren and his 1992 book The Left Hander Syndrome, that insisted that lefties die early. I've read multiple science based articles which state that left handed people do indeed die early and many which say that this is not so. According to Coren's findings, lefties are at a disadvantage, largely due to the tribulations of existing within a right-handed world. Although it is a myth that left-handed people are clumsy, there is some data which suggests that left-handers are at risk due to the fact that we all function in a world which favors the right hand.

I grew up with right-handed scissors, right-handed notebooks, right-handed school desk tables, and right-handed students. There are conflicting studies which snowball on top of this by suggesting that it's not just the mechanics of a right-handed environment that gets lefties into trouble. There may be a difference in thought patterns that set off left-handers. The bottom line is that scientists have not arrived at any concrete conclusions.

In addition to concerning neurobiological implications there is also the issue of stigma. There are plenty of left-handed children who start out feeling like outcasts. Some cultures frown upon left-handed sons and daughters and some are forced to write with their right hands. I am lucky enough that I never felt the effects of stigma. Even so, I did feel different. One can't help but notice the array of right handed folks in comparison to the left-handed.

Ask almost any lefty and they will most likely tell you that at some point or another they have researched famous individuals or individuals of note who are also left-handed. It is a vain attempt at feeling less abnormal. In the past I too have sought out such a list, however, I have never taken it too seriously. There are indeed public figures whom I admire that are also left-handed, but there are also some whom I do not admire who are left-handed as well.

In the end left handedness remains mysterious. The notion that left-handers may die early does unnerves me but I am not investing too much into it. I suppose, instead of spending so much time in a state of nervousness, all we can do as a left-handed minority is wait for more definitive data. Oh yeah - and we can live our lives to the fullest. We can do that too.