Do you like to start at the back of a book, flip through the pages and pictures?  Years ago, when I was a child, children were often forced to write with their right hands.  I was one of those unfortunate children.   I had a male teacher at a one-room country school in Minnesota.  I was six years old and in the second grade.  I dreaded going to school, as a shy child, because I never knew how often my fingers would be tapped with a ruler. (I did not tell my mother because I thought I was doing something wrong, not the teacher.) I tried my hardest to use my right hand, but without realizing I was making a shift from right to left, especially in Penmanship class.  He would walk up and down the isles with an eye on another child  who had this same “affliction”.  I just thought that was the way it had to be.  I was so frustrated that I thought something very bad was wrong with me.  Why does my pencil escape to my left hand without me knowing it?

This went on for several weeks of the school year, until the teacher broke a damaged ruler on my left hand.  One of the older children told her parents about it and her father was on the School Board.  They had a special board meeting and the teacher was relieved of his job.  Today, he would have been charged with child abuse.  Despite all this, I have a fairly good handwriting with my left hand, which I use all the time.

Left-handers have made a mark with several sports, like baseball.  Also, in the Art World, you find a great percentage of artists, serious or not,  are left handed.  The greatest sculptor of all time, in my estimation, was Michaelangelo from Italy.  I saw his Pieta while in Rome, some years ago, and it is exquisite and much emotion.  People stand quietly, when viewing it.  It is a bit awesome!  Michaelangelo was left handed. 

To deviate a bit, there was a story about him as one day, he was seen walking down the street pulling a wagon with a block of marble on it.  When asked why he was pulling a wagon with a block of marble, he said,”  , “Because there is an angel in there that wants to get out!” 

Why, I don’t know, but left-handers are creative people.  I don’t mind being left- handed since I learned it was o.k. and nothing was wrong with me.  Another incident I remember as a child, with an older sister, right-handed.  Our grandmother taught her how to knit and crochet and how I longed to be able to do that, but my grandmother told me she couldn’t teach me because I was left-handed.  Again, the thought, was there something wrong with me?  Needless to say, my dear grandmother was not aware that I was so troubled by not being able to do those skills. 

Never, never, make a distinction between your children or grand children of this sort of explanation, which wasn’t really one.  Nowadays, teachers are so creative themselves and for the most part, encourage children in the development of each child’s individual gifts.  My children and grandchildren remember those special teachers with fond memories.    We are grateful to their teachers for their efforts for our family’s children.

Doing right-handed things can really be a challenge for the lefty.  I mastered the scissor and ever since cut with my right hand.  When I work with clay, I use both hands without much effort.   Never belittle a left-handed child or draw comparisons with right- handed children.  He or she may sparkle in the lives of elders with the gifts of love and joy, he or she possess and pass on.  God made them lefties. There has to be a reason.  I think if we would all pay attention we would find that lefties are  equally as gifted as other children and some are even moreso.  That’s the joy of the child.  They give their love unconditionally and if they write you a message you find hard to read, over-look it.  It’s what’s in that child’s heart that counts.  Believe me!  It’s love!

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