“Everyone is born right-handed; only the greatest can overcome it!”
I thought I would shed some light on us creatures of the Left existence because well we are few and far between (only 13% of the population around the world) and although no one has come up with a definitive reason for WHY some people are left-handed, our uniqueness should be celebrated!
I found most of this info on a website actually dedicate to being left handed!http://www.lefthandersday.com Celebrate left handers day on 13th August!
FASCINATING LEFT-HANDED FACTS
· Most left-handers draw figures facing to the right
· There is a high tendency in twins for one to be left-handed
· Left-handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater.
· Left-handers excel particularly in tennis, baseball, swimming and fencing
· Left-handers usually reach puberty 4 to 5 months after right-handers
· 4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed
· Left-handers are generally more intelligent, better looking, imaginative and multi-talented than right handers. Fact.
WHAT MAKES A LEFTY, LEFT?
The way the brain works is incredibly complex, but this simplified explanation will give you some understanding of where our left-hand dominance comes from. The brain is "cross-wired" so that the left hemisphere controls the right handed side of the body and vice-versa and hand dominance is connected with brain dominance on the opposite side - which is why we say that only left-handers are in their right minds!
The left hemisphere (RIGHT HAND CONTROL) controls Speech, Language, Writing, Logic, Mathematics, Science, this is the LINEAR THINKING MODE.
The right hemisphere (LEFT HAND CONTROL) controls Music, Art, Creativity, Perception, Emotions,Genius, this is the HOLISTIC THINKING MODE.
This brain dominance makes left-handers more likely than right handers to be creative, and visual thinkers. This is supported by higher percentages of left-handers than normal in certain jobs and professions - music and the arts, media in general.
Left-handers are also generally better at 3-dimensional perception and thinking, leading, for example, to more left-handed architects than normal. Left-handers are also usually pretty good at most ball sports and things involving hand-to-eye co-ordination.
The view that left-handers are clumsy and awkward is not down to their natural abilities, but being forced to use right-handed tools and machinery which is completely back-to-front for them.
See illustration below...
It's not easy being a lefty.
Statistics show left-handed people are more likely to be schizophrenic, alcoholic, delinquent, dyslexic, and have Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, as well as mental disabilities. They're also more likely to die young and get into accidents. So if evolutionary theory dictates survival of the fittest, why do lefties still exist?
Then again, as many lefties might point out, being left-handed can also offer intellectual prowess. Tests conducted by Alan Searleman from St Lawrence University in New York found there were more left-handed people with IQs over 140 than right-handed people. Famous left-handed thinkers in history from Albert Einstein to Isaac Newton to Benjamin Franklin seem to underline the point.
THE SCIENTIFIC BIT
The way our brains are organised, with the right hemisphere controlling our dominant left-hand, means we do things differently to right-handers. This is called Brain hemisphere division of labour.
The left hemisphere (RIGHT HAND CONTROL) controls Speech, Language, Writing, Logic, Mathematics, Science, this is the LINEAR THINKING MODE.The right hemisphere (LEFT HAND CONTROL) controls Music, Art, Creativity, Perception, Spatial awareness, Emotions, Genius, this is the HOLISTIC THINKING MODE.
This is the most commonly accepted theory of handedness. The premise of this theory is that since both speaking and handiwork require fine motor skills, having one hemisphere of the brain do both would be more efficient than having it divided up. And since in most people, the left side of the brain controls speaking, right-handedness would prevail. It also predicts that left-handed people would have a reversed brain division of labour. Lastly, since other primates do not have a spoken language (at least of the type we have) there would be no stimulus for right-handed preference among them, and that is true.
On the balance, it appears that this theory could well explain some left-handedness, but it has too many gaps to explain all left-handedness.
Several brain-scan studies have verified a fundamental difference between left-handed and right-handed brains. A right-handed person's brain is typically highly specialized, with a specific portion of the brain dedicated to each task. This same specialization is much less prevalent in left-handed brains. Left-handed stroke victims often rehabilitate more quickly than right-handed stroke victims, as the left-handed brain has a lesser tendency to compartmentalize and specialize its abilities.
LEFT-HANDED HISTORY
Stone Age implements discovered seem equally divided between left and right and studies of cave drawings have indicated a preference for the left hand. When tools became more sophisticated, a clear hand preference emerged. The right hand preference may have originated in sun worship.
In the Northern hemisphere you have to face south to follow the sun and move from left to right until the suns sets in the west. This gave moving to the right and the right hand side a great significance. Another theory says that as the heart is on the left hand side, a shield would have to be in the left hand to defend it and any weapon therefore had to be held in the right, which became the dominant hand.
Recent theories have included one that right-handedness is the normality and left-handedness is a deficiency which results from a traumatic birth!
FOLKLORE AND SUPERSTITIONS (the source of Lefty Phobia!)
For thousands of years, the Devil has been associated with the left hand in various ways and is normally portrayed as being left-handed in pictures and other images.
In the seventeenth century it was thought that the Devil baptised his followers with his left-hand and there are many references in superstitions to the "left-hand side" being associated with evil. As an example, in France it was held that witches greet Satan "avec le bras gauche" or with the left hand. It is also considered that we can only see ghosts if we look over our left shoulder and that the Devil watches us over the left shoulder.
· Evil spirits lurk over the left shoulder - throw salt over this shoulder to ward them off. In Roman times, salt was a very valuable commodity, giving rise to the word "salary" and was considered a form of money at the time. If salt was spilled, that was considered very bad luck, that could only be avoided by throwing some of the spilled salt over your left shoulder to placate the devil.
· Joan of Arc (burned at the stake in 1431 for being a heretic and a witch) was not necessarily left-handed, she may have been depicted in this way to make her seem evil.
· Getting out of bed with the left foot first means that you will have a bad day and be bad tempered . i.e. getting out of bed the wrong side.
· An itchy right palm means that you will receive money. An itchy left palm means you will have to give money.
· Wedding rings worn on the third finger of the left hand originated with the Greeks and Romans, who wore them to fend of evil associated with the left-hand.
· The Romans originally considered the left to be the lucky side and used for augury. However, they later changed back to the Greek methods and favoured the right-hand side.
· The right hand often symbolises 'male' while the left hand is 'female'.
· When leaving to go on a journey, if your right foot itches you're bound to have a good journey. If your left foot itches it will end in sorrow.
· It is thought to be bad luck to pass a drink to another person with your left-hand or anti-clockwise around a table.
FAMOUS LEFTIES
Lefties have excelled at both ends of the scale - the very good and the very bad. They seem to make exceptional leaders, inventors, artists, musicians and murderers! (I only picked the ones that I recognized, there are of course many more!)
Ramses II, Egyptian pharaoh
Alexander the Great, Greek conqueror
Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor
Julius Caesar, Roman general
Napoléon Bonaparte, French emperor
King Louis XVI of France, Queen Victoria of England, King George II & VI of England, Prince Charles of England, Prince William of England
Fidel Castro, Cuban leader
Henry Ford, automobile manufacturer
David Rockefeller, banker
Edwin Buzz Aldrin, astronaut
John F. Kennedy, Jr., lawyer/publisher
David Letterman, host
Matt Groening, The Simpsons cartoonist
John Dillinger, criminal/bank robber
Boston Strangler (Albert Henry DeSalvo), serial killer
Jack-the-Ripper, serial killer
Mark Twain, novelist
H.G. Wells, British science fiction writer
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, composer,
Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance artists
Go the lefties!!!
The Lefty Orangeblossom xxx
Statistics show left-handed people are more likely to be schizophrenic, alcoholic, delinquent, dyslexic, and have Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, as well as mental disabilities. They're also more likely to die young and get into accidents. So if evolutionary theory dictates survival of the fittest, why do lefties still exist?
Then again, as many lefties might point out, being left-handed can also offer intellectual prowess. Tests conducted by Alan Searleman from St Lawrence University in New York found there were more left-handed people with IQs over 140 than right-handed people. Famous left-handed thinkers in history from Albert Einstein to Isaac Newton to Benjamin Franklin seem to underline the point.
THE SCIENTIFIC BIT
The way our brains are organised, with the right hemisphere controlling our dominant left-hand, means we do things differently to right-handers. This is called Brain hemisphere division of labour.
The left hemisphere (RIGHT HAND CONTROL) controls Speech, Language, Writing, Logic, Mathematics, Science, this is the LINEAR THINKING MODE.The right hemisphere (LEFT HAND CONTROL) controls Music, Art, Creativity, Perception, Spatial awareness, Emotions, Genius, this is the HOLISTIC THINKING MODE.
This is the most commonly accepted theory of handedness. The premise of this theory is that since both speaking and handiwork require fine motor skills, having one hemisphere of the brain do both would be more efficient than having it divided up. And since in most people, the left side of the brain controls speaking, right-handedness would prevail. It also predicts that left-handed people would have a reversed brain division of labour. Lastly, since other primates do not have a spoken language (at least of the type we have) there would be no stimulus for right-handed preference among them, and that is true.
On the balance, it appears that this theory could well explain some left-handedness, but it has too many gaps to explain all left-handedness.
Several brain-scan studies have verified a fundamental difference between left-handed and right-handed brains. A right-handed person's brain is typically highly specialized, with a specific portion of the brain dedicated to each task. This same specialization is much less prevalent in left-handed brains. Left-handed stroke victims often rehabilitate more quickly than right-handed stroke victims, as the left-handed brain has a lesser tendency to compartmentalize and specialize its abilities.
LEFT-HANDED HISTORY
Stone Age implements discovered seem equally divided between left and right and studies of cave drawings have indicated a preference for the left hand. When tools became more sophisticated, a clear hand preference emerged. The right hand preference may have originated in sun worship.
In the Northern hemisphere you have to face south to follow the sun and move from left to right until the suns sets in the west. This gave moving to the right and the right hand side a great significance. Another theory says that as the heart is on the left hand side, a shield would have to be in the left hand to defend it and any weapon therefore had to be held in the right, which became the dominant hand.
Recent theories have included one that right-handedness is the normality and left-handedness is a deficiency which results from a traumatic birth!
FOLKLORE AND SUPERSTITIONS (the source of Lefty Phobia!)
For thousands of years, the Devil has been associated with the left hand in various ways and is normally portrayed as being left-handed in pictures and other images.
In the seventeenth century it was thought that the Devil baptised his followers with his left-hand and there are many references in superstitions to the "left-hand side" being associated with evil. As an example, in France it was held that witches greet Satan "avec le bras gauche" or with the left hand. It is also considered that we can only see ghosts if we look over our left shoulder and that the Devil watches us over the left shoulder.
· Evil spirits lurk over the left shoulder - throw salt over this shoulder to ward them off. In Roman times, salt was a very valuable commodity, giving rise to the word "salary" and was considered a form of money at the time. If salt was spilled, that was considered very bad luck, that could only be avoided by throwing some of the spilled salt over your left shoulder to placate the devil.
· Joan of Arc (burned at the stake in 1431 for being a heretic and a witch) was not necessarily left-handed, she may have been depicted in this way to make her seem evil.
· Getting out of bed with the left foot first means that you will have a bad day and be bad tempered . i.e. getting out of bed the wrong side.
· An itchy right palm means that you will receive money. An itchy left palm means you will have to give money.
· Wedding rings worn on the third finger of the left hand originated with the Greeks and Romans, who wore them to fend of evil associated with the left-hand.
· The Romans originally considered the left to be the lucky side and used for augury. However, they later changed back to the Greek methods and favoured the right-hand side.
· The right hand often symbolises 'male' while the left hand is 'female'.
· When leaving to go on a journey, if your right foot itches you're bound to have a good journey. If your left foot itches it will end in sorrow.
· It is thought to be bad luck to pass a drink to another person with your left-hand or anti-clockwise around a table.
FAMOUS LEFTIES
Lefties have excelled at both ends of the scale - the very good and the very bad. They seem to make exceptional leaders, inventors, artists, musicians and murderers! (I only picked the ones that I recognized, there are of course many more!)
Ramses II, Egyptian pharaoh
Alexander the Great, Greek conqueror
Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor
Julius Caesar, Roman general
Napoléon Bonaparte, French emperor
King Louis XVI of France, Queen Victoria of England, King George II & VI of England, Prince Charles of England, Prince William of England
Fidel Castro, Cuban leader
Henry Ford, automobile manufacturer
David Rockefeller, banker
Edwin Buzz Aldrin, astronaut
John F. Kennedy, Jr., lawyer/publisher
David Letterman, host
Matt Groening, The Simpsons cartoonist
John Dillinger, criminal/bank robber
Boston Strangler (Albert Henry DeSalvo), serial killer
Jack-the-Ripper, serial killer
Mark Twain, novelist
H.G. Wells, British science fiction writer
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, composer,
Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance artists
Go the lefties!!!
The Lefty Orangeblossom xxx
1 comment:
My 2 boys (Norm and Joshua) are both lefties... we'll be celebrating from across the ocean with you Cat :)
Can you believe 13% of the population, but 66% of my household haha!
Charlene
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