Charlie Chaplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Pearl

Ever since we noticed that Obama is left-handed, we’ve been thinking about our older daughter Pearl.  She came out of the womb favoring her left hand.  In her first Montessori class at 6 months old, the instructor noticed that Pearl would start her crawl with her left leg.  We were impressed, but we’d already guessed as much.  She grabbed the cat’s ears with her left hand, made the sign to breastfeed with her left hand, and waved goodbye to us with her left hand.

Pearl and Carrie's donor is left-handed, so we guess that’s where she got it. Of course, Marcia claims that she had something to do with it because she has always dreamed of being left-handed. She associates left-handedness with creativity and originality.  I told Marcia that my brother and sister are left-handed, so maybe I should get the credit.

Regardless of who is responsible, Marcia and I both feel it’s a good thing.  After all, Pearl has some great role models: Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Helen Keller, Charlie Chaplin, Jay Leno, Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll, Carol Burnett, Paul Simon, James Baldwin, Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Dick Van Dyke, Kurt Cobain, Angelina Jolie, Diego Maradona, Mark Spitz, John McEnroe, and of course, Bart Simpson.  

Are YOU left-handed?  Any thoughts on left-handedness?

Comments

[elswhere]

Yay, Pearl! I am left-handed and always felt like it was a mark of distinction. Though it did make it hard for me to learn to knit or play tennis.

The other day I was reading a book to my (right-handed) daughter, and there was a character in it who was left-handed and was getting in trouble at school because he wouldn't write with his right hand. I had to explain that schools used to do that, make left-handed people write with their right hand, even if it didn't feel natural to them and made everything twice as hard, but that now almost everyone understands that there's nothing wrong about being left-handed and it's best for everyone to use the hand that works best for them.

Then I got all rhapsodic and said that one day almost everyone will understand that who you fall in love with is the same way, and that telling people it's wrong to be gay will seem as silly to most people as making left-handed people use their right hand seems to us now.

Then she said, basically, yeah yeah yeah, will you go on with the book now, Mommy?

[Carly]

Coming out of lurking to say HI! and also...

I am left-handed. My cousin, the only other member of my generation, is also left-handed. No one else in our family is left-handed. Yes, this is weird. But I love being left-handed, even if it sometimes can be a pain.

Apparently I have always been extremely left-handed. When I was a baby and my parents handed me something in my left hand, it stayed there. When they handed me something in my right hand, it switched immediately to my left.

I'd never been in a group of people who were majorly left-handed until I went to Governor's School for the Humanities in Tennessee. We wentto dinner, and I said, "wait, guys, I need to sit on that end so I don't bump you," and it turned out 7 of the 8 of us were left-handed.

[Tracey]

My father was left handed, and was made to write with his right hand. He did at school, but at home he used his left hand, and consequently became ambidextrous.
The four of us are right handed, although my sister and I favour our left hands for some sports, and I have always worn my watch on my right wrist.

My partners sister is left handed and so is her husband.

[Att]

I had this friend in middle school named Jackie. She was so pretty, so smart, so funny and so talented at the flute. She was that shy, quiet, brilliant kind of girl that slips under the radar until college when she bursts out of her cocoon all gorgeous and radiant. Jackie was left handed, the first person I recognized to be left handed. I'm sure there were many people before her who were left handed (I distinctly remember the "special" tray of lefty scissors in EVERY elementary classroom I was in, and how often they were fought over) but none of them stick so plainly in my mind as Jackie does.

Perhaps it was her handwriting. I've been complimented on my handwriting at every stage of my life. To this day I get compliments on how neat and pretty it is. But Jackie's was just gorgeous and perfect and had a little backwards slant due to her lefty-ness.

Actually, I think it was mostly the fact that when she took notes in class or free-wrote essays, her hand would get smudged with pencil lead and I thought that was an awful hassle to have to go wash all that lead off before lunch.

What I'm getting at is that I think being left handed is neat. But I also think that both your girls are destined to be someone no matter what hand scrawls their name. ;-)

[Carolina]

... and Barack Obama! I love watching him sign things into law with his southpaw.

[The Other Dawn]

I love catching someone writing left-handed that I admire. I am a lefty, as is my husband. We both have right-handed parents, and both of our kids are right-handed.

It's neat to have something distinctive about ourselves that isn't too weird... but we have no clue how to teach our righty-kids how to do anything right handed!

[Robin Reagler]

Wow! That is so interesting about the governor's school. Do you have a
theory about it?

[domi]

My partner is left handed and she's VERY creative and talented. But she comes from a time (and a country) where left-handedness was considered a bad thing and was harassed to no end by the nuns at her school. Nonetheless she uses her left hand to paint/draw, write, and almost everything else.
My cousin on the other hand (no pun intended) is left handed. I remember growing up together and he was one of the least creative persons I have ever met. He has business smarts, but is not what I would consider a smart person in any other way. He does have beautiful penmanship and I’m always amazed at how he writes with his hand all curled up.

[mommytoo]

if i'm not mistaken, 4 of our last 5 presidents (i'm including obama) have been left-handed. impressive! my wife is a lefty, and i'm always watching to see if nate is.

[stidmama]

Three of my grandparents were lefties. At least two of my aunts/uncles are lefties. (My parents are right-handed). My brother is a lefty. I am pretty much ambidextrous: though I favor my right hand for writing (force of habit?) and art, I used to use my left hand for sports that involved throwing and hitting. I am equally bad with either hand in archery... and one of our children is a lefty. Although his lefty-ness might be from the cerebral palsy that is worse on the right side.

[Peg]

I love the topic! And while I am sure that I fit into an average category of being right handed, there are a number of activities where I am decidedly a lefty. From the little bit that I've read, most people, if truly tested would perform a certain number of activities with their non dominate hand.

One that I've known about since I was a child happens to be skate boarding. I always put my right foot on the front of the board, this leaves the control up to the dominate foot. The same principle applies to using a broom or shovel. The hand that you put up highest on the shovel/broom has the fine control. I shovel, broom, and use a number of specialized tools in a left handed manner. I only found out because I had so much trouble learning to use some of them the way that I was shown.

And I notice that Pearl uses her left foot forward. (I think this is right footed.) But then, perhaps she was taught this and will change on her own.

I think left handed people are cool too. Interesting. I believe every math teacher that I ever had was left handed, but not my Chem teachers. (And we all know that Chem is just math disguised with goo.)

Is there such a thing as a left handed flute? (ATT)

Didn't mean to ramble...

Best regards!
Peg