15 April 2017

The Left Hand

I tend to make a big deal in my head noticing people being left-handed. I'm left-handed myself, so it may be trying to have a commonality with other human beings.

I never really faced a stigma against my being left-handed, though I do cite how my grandfather (and, now thinking about it, occasionally my dad in the earlier years) would have me put on and tie my right shoe first. My dad has asked me sometimes why I hang clothes on hangers the way I do, and that is primarily because I'm left-handed.

When I found people actually didn't mind, I would wear watches on my right wrist, making it so much easier to put on.

I would have to remember consciously that people shake hands with their right hand (even though I think I may have extended my left on more than a few occasions out of not even thinking about it), because there are some people who consider shaking the left hand rude (or even gross, since some people believe one must wipe after using the restroom with the left hand only).

It's funny, though, that traditional place settings have the fork on the left and knife on the right, even though when eating with just a fork I see people use their right hands to manipulate their food. I have, to horror, seen some people do a reverse place setting. I've had to learn to not put drinkware on the left hand side, and to make sure the handle on teacups and coffee cups face the right (since, especially in hospitality, one wants to make things easier for people and err to the majority of your clients being right-handed). 

I have a Wikipedia page in edit/draught status where I've been amassing a list of left-hand "celebrities" as I've noticed them. There are people like Eliza Taylor who seem a little ambidextrous, but others like Barack Obama that people would recognize.

This world is interesting enough with cultural differences with left and right. I still need to read The Left Hand of Darkness.

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