Left-Handed and Better Than You

There is an exclusive club that exists in the world whose select members span across all borders, nationalities, races, and ethnicities.  Money and privilege will not gain you entrance into this club, nor will connections or circumstance.  Admittance comes from a higher power, and is woven selectively into certain human beings’ genetic code.If the super hero club “Avengers” comes to mind, you’re not far off.  I’m speaking of course about the approximately 10% of the world’s population, including myself, who are fortunate enough to be left-handed.Yes, contrary to what some terribly misguided folks will tell you, being left-handed sets you apart into an unique cadre of athletes, freethinkers, scientists, explorers, inventors, writers and world leaders.Let’s take a quick snapshot at the roster starting with recent left-handed Presidents.  Barack Obama (okay, bad example), Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford are a few leftie presidents.  If rumors are true, Ronald Reagan himself was born left-handed but forced to go rightie by intolerant, stringent schoolteachers.

Other notable lefties include: Jimmy Hendrix, Marilyn Monroe, Bill Gates, Neil Armstong AND Buzz Aldrin, Pablo Picasso, Bob Dylan, Joan of Arc, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria, Arnold Palmer, Diego Maradona and Charlie Chaplin.  These select few were all blessed with the gift of being left-handed.

Of course the naysayers, the envious right-handed masses, will be sure to point out the supposed “disadvantages” of being left-handed.  So, for the sake of argument, let’s debunk some of the common “downsides” associated with being left-handed.

“Downside”: Lefties die younger

If you consider dying younger to be a downside, you’re obviously a right-hander.  You see, left-handed individuals tend to live life to it’s fullest even if it knocks a few years off the end.  As Mark Twain (also a lefty) once said, “let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”

“Downside”: We’re more likely to go insane

Call us genius, call us eccentric, or call us a tad bit insane, either way you look at it, having your mental composition questioned comes with the territory when you are gifted and left-handed.

If you’re still not convinced, take a look at a few Picasso paintings, and tell me you wouldn’t question his sanity at first sight?

“Downside”: We’re worse off in school Apparently Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton and Einstein (all lefties) didn’t get this memo, but the data behind this one revolves around left-handers having more frequent cases of learning disabilities such as dyslexia, ADHD, and…  Sorry, I just saw something shiny, where were we?

Right: learning disabilities. Like superheros, we left-handers must just learn to channel our superior intellect, which supports researchby St. Lawrence University that concluded there were more left-handed people with IQs over 140 than right-handed people.

Sure, watching “The Sixth Sense” may have frightened lefties such as myself – and more than we are willing to admit – but how we ultimately deal with fear is what defines us.

Was Napoleon scared paralyzed with fear on the Island of Elba?  Did Winston Churchill cower in fear before Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich?  Do you remember Alexander the Great fearfully retreating from the borders of the Persian Empire?

The answers, are of course a resounding “no,” because despite what some studies may suggest, those left-handers prove that lefties can rise to the occasion and eventually overcome our fears.

To the right-handed mob intent on suppressing our small but gifted left-handed minority, I say this: The history is clear, our noble lineage speaks for itself.   You may have 90% of the world, but we have the 10% that counts.

To my left-handed kin, I leave you with this:  Explore your unique talents and abilities, recognize your left-handed birthright, and raise a pint (as I’m sure many of you will) to wearing your left-handedness as a badge of honor.