ambidextrous in a right-hand world
I received a war wound on the Paddy's Day Massacre of 2007 day trying to do too much by myself without asking from help from nearby people. It drives me nuts how 3 days after I burn myself, that the wound looks uglier and hurts more than it did on the day I did it.
It also amazes me how much I really do with my right hand (nothing like a war wound to drive home how much you actually use that hand). Most of my life I lived as a southpaw. But I have had occasion to use my right hand when I've broken or sprained the left. And when no one was able to teach me to do things with the left.
I find I do most of the meaningless things with my right - like wash my hair (well, at least its the dominant hand while washing my hair), stirring food while cooking, pouring water, collating papers, drinking, computer mouse (even though I know I can change the hand designation, it just doesn't feel right in my left hand), snapping my fingers, driving (though some of this is forced as how the car is laid out, I do most of the steering with my right). I tend to catch with my left and throw with my right. But I bowl with either hand, depending on my mood.
Some of the major items I still mainly do with the left - writing, cutting, brushing teeth, eating.
Though even these I can switch if needed. I think a huge part of my ambidexterity comes from being forced to live in a right-handed world. I wonder if any other southpaws out there have had similar experiences?
If I was to go through the looking-glass, would the hand designations change? Or would they be the same with less emphasis? Would I be forced to see an ironic left-hand world with my dominant hand still being the odd man out or would I finally have a place where the gizmos and gadgets would finally be made for me rather than right-handers?
When I was growing up, my mom got a catalog from Abbey Press every now and again. In there were pages devoted to the southpaw. Left-handed measuring cups. A left-handed coffee mug that penalized you for drinking from your right hand. Left-handed scissors. A wall hanging with a 'bill of Lefts' for left-handers. I always told myself that when I got old enough to order things from that catalog that the first thing I would buy would be the coffee cup with the hole on the right side. Now, if I was to get it, I could never drink from it as I would spill it down the front of me.
Truth is, I'd spill it no matter which side of the cup I drank from.