On being left-handed

In the comments nepata brought up the topic of left-handedness which, since I are one, has always been of interest to me.  While I know about some of the bad ways that lefties used to be treated, I don't recall that I was ever the subject of any bad treatment.  About the worst thing that ever happened was always getting pencil-lead on my hand as I wrote, because my hand trailed over the existing writing instead of leading it.  To a small degree I was also a tiny bit handicapped when learning sports, such as learning how to correctly throw a ball, but fairly quickly I learned to 'mirror' the example, as if I was watching myself in a mirror, and that seemed to work about very well.  Even now, when I demonstrate throwing technique to my youth softball team, we are able to stand face to face and they can see me and mimic me as if I was in a mirror, and that teaching technique seems to work quite well.

I think the first time I really noticed being left handed was in about fifth grade, when we learned about Leonardo Da Vinci, who was also left handed.  For awhile he became my hero, and I even learned to write backwards just like he did.  It was fairly easy to do at the time, and I can still write cursive from right to left, mirror writing, with little difficulty.

I dislike people who are, in my opinion, too sensitive to perceiving prejudice, so I don't really get into the poor-me stories about being a lefty.  Please don't get me wrong, though.  I know that there are actual cases of discrimination going on in the world, and I totally despise that, probably because in a tiny way I know what it is like to feel different.  I hate that crap!  Seriously.  But there is a line between actual discrimination and non-discrimination, and the line exists, and I don't like people who cross over that line and perceive discrimination when it is not there.  People like that are way too hard to be around, and I choose not to be around them.

Back to left-handedness.  In part being left-handed is why I took up the French Horn (which is now, apparently, simply called the 'Horn' by snooty people, so la-di-dah to them), because you press the valves with your left hand, but overall I don't think that matters much, and I've played trumpet and mellophone, pressing the valves with my right hand with little problem.  Same with the guitar.  I play the chords with my left and strum with my right, which is the same as most right-handers, and I can't say it really has mattered to me.  Maybe if I was super great or something, but as an amateur I can do okay the way I do it.  Same with batting.  In essence my torso twists one way when I throw and the other way when I bat, but that never seemed to matter much, and maybe it makes my torso more balanced, I dunno.

What I do think I know about being left-handed is this - I've asked the experts for over thirty years, starting with college, and in general I get the same answer - when the Doctor's and researchers talk about brain development, or brain activity, they are always talking about righties, because righties are more prevalent, and lefties have not been studied.  The Doctors are pretty sure that lefties are *not* just mirror images of righties as far as brain function goes, but that is about all I can get out of them.

My *guess*, based on the current state of neuroscience (luckily I live near the Mayo clinic and have heard talks given by some of the top experts) is that our brains function more like a cluster of processors instead of a single processor.  I suspect that our brains can hold two or more impulses or processes or whatever you call it at the same time, and sometimes these processes may even contradict each other.  That is my guess, and I think it explains why people's actions and thoughts are so darn complicated.

I also think that while different areas of the brain can develop to handle different functions, meaning it isn't like arithmetic processing must always be in a particular place, it is still true that _in general_ certain brain functions tend to happen in certain places.  By the way, have you seen  Jill Taylor's book "My Stroke of Insight?"  It is awesome!

So what about lefties?  I think that in general, in lefties, our brain's multiple processors are arranged differently from those in a righties brains, and some of the processors may even have a higher priority when contention occurs.  Lefties are over-represented in the arts, for example.  I think it is well-established that lefties are, in general, different from righties, and I'm gonna make the bold claim that we are better!

Yeah, I took the huge leap from different to better.  Better at what, you should ask.  Better at a certain kind of thinking and reasoning, I will reply.  Certainly better at artistic reasoning, whatever that is.

I think it is well-established that there is a genetic link for handedness, because it tends to run in families.  I think we will eventually discover exactly what that link is.

In the meantime, here in the privacy of my blog, I'm gonna make a bold claim and, again, state that in general lefties are the next step in human evolution as far as mental capacity goes.  If this proves to be an evolutionary advantage, meaning will lefties get the chicks, well, I dunno for sure, but actors do tend to get around.