Tuesday, August 24, 2010

LEFT VERSUS RIGHT

Whenever I read the names of famous left-handed people, I can't help wishing I were a lefty.

I'm right-handed but I'm strangely, unusually symmetrical. I keep getting invited to conferences of hypnotists and psychoanalysts. After I say I can't be put to sleep by a hypnotist, and some expert hypnotizes me, I simply obey. And lift my arm or do what they command.

They ask me questions;. After I answer, and they "wake" me, they say I am exactly, equally left brain and right brain. Apparently it's rare, and interesting -- I've read that left brain people are more creative, right brain are more successful in money making, and business.

Even so, as far as I'm concerned, the best, most creative guys throughout history, were lefties.

Do you want to know what Obama, a lefty, really thinks? Watch his hands.. Scientists say when lefties discuss things they feel positive about, they gesture with the left; they use their right hand for things that are negative. Right-handed people do the opposite.

Associating good things with the side of your dominant hand extends beyond just gestures. Researchers found if you’re right-handed, you’re more inclined to think, in general, that things on the right are good, while left-oriented things (people, images, whatever) are bad. Again, the converse is true for you lefties.

Does this mean that our bodies influence the way we think without our ever knowing anything about it?

Maybe Tea Partiers and Republicans have "Sinistrophobia?" It's the fear of left-handedness, or things -- anything -- on the left side. There's a national Left-Handed Day -- this year it landed on Friday August 13th. Friday the 13th frightens people who've got "Triskaidekaphobia" -- fear of the number 13.

(It might be interesting to do a poll on which guys in Congress have both "Sinis" and "Trisk" phobias -- maybe that's why they're such passionate NO-sayers.)

Aside from Obama, other left-handed presidents are Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, James A. Garfield, and Herbert Hoover. Other great lefty leaders include Mahatma Gandhi, Otto von Bismarck, King Louis XVI of France, Queen Victoria, (plus her left-handed successors -- King George VI, and Prince Charles).

Other major lefty leaders include Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, Julius Caesar and Fidel Castro.

Lefties make up to about 15% of the world’s population and there is a probability of this number increasing. Why? Researchers say it might be testosterone -- it suppresses the growth of the left cerebral hemisphere and so as an embryo develops, more neurons migrate to the right hemisphere. (Maybe it's something to do with Viagra?)

The fact is, even nowadays, some parents and teachers discourage their kids from writing with the left hand -- force them to write with their right hand, punish them if they don't. In many societies (including ours) you don’t greet with the left hand -- it's seen as a form of disrespect.

Many of the foremost thinkers in the world are lefties -- Sir Isaac Newton, Aristotle, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Joan of Arc, Helen Keller, and Benjamin Franklin. Also Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain and Goethe, and Leonardo Da Vinci, and composers Mozart, Beethoven, and Paul McCartney.

Lefties in show biz -- it' s a wow list -- Tom Cruise, Whoopi Goldberg, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Keanu Reeves, Jay Leno, Lady Gaga, Oprah, Julia Roberts, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, and Chaplin, also the new kid Justin Bieber, and directors Spike Lee and James Cameron.

Top southpaws in sports: Lew Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Pele, Martine Navratilova, and Mike Tyson.

And don't forget Bill Gates is a lefty, also, Henry Ford and David Rockefeller.

Left-handed people have excelled in every field. I can't help thinking the most important most noteworthy people in the world are left handed ... Gee, I read someplace that Osama Bin laden's a lefty ...

Hey, being a righty is okay! I'm happy, being one. Take this test. Here's a link to take a test and find out about your brain. Don't cheat, don't hurry, do it carefully. Maybe you're equally a lefty-righty like me.

4 comments:

Carola said...

Mine came out exactly equal too!!

Linda Phillips said...

I was born ambidextrous and precocious..LOL and began writing at a very young age. I would pick up a pencil with either hand and write. My father thought it was strange and forced me to be right handed, but I always did a number of things with either hand.

I have always been both very creative and very mechanical....I was always drawn to typical boy toys as a kid like electric trains and erector sets and never allowed either. My interest in electronics and mechanical things has always remained with me as has my creativity.

I have also had a problem throughout my life remembering which was right and which was left. I wonder too, if my constant way of seeing things from both sides has to do with being ambidextrous as well as being a Libran. Hum?

Becca said...

This is so funny, Em. I'm often envious of lefties, too--my dad was one, my husband is one, and when I read the lists of ultra-smart and talented lefties from history, I do feel less than special because of my right-handedness. But guess what? Now I feel much better because I scored just like you and Linda--an equal split, 16/16. I like how Linda tied in the Zodiac; I'm a Pisces, so I have that Yin/Yang thing going on in a major way.

My grandmother is a woman I'm proud to be related to. She was born in 1898, orphaned at the age of 8 or 9, and grew up in an orphanage, never to be adopted. She was a leftie, and endured painful learning sessions where she was forced to write with her right hand with her left hand tied behind her back. She went on to earn a college degree, and did work with Dr. Kellogg (The corn flakes guy). I think she could have been famous, but she fell in love with a tobacco farmer and ended up teaching K-12 in a one-room schoolhouse in Kentucky. I never get to tell that story--thanks for the fantastic topic choice!

Lynne said...

I'll take the test later, but I am most definitely a Lefty, have been all my life and proud of it! Writing, cutting, stirring, using tools, all left-handed. I'm even left-footed, which maybe explains why dancing is not my strong suit, since most dancing seems to start on the right foot or towards the right. And I've been told I have an unusual way of reasoning (but I call it being creative!).