Did you know that August 13th is a special day?

It is a day that recognizes the people that have many difficulties in life.

Consider this;

• How would you feel if your school desk was not made for you?
• What about having difficulty cutting paper with scissors?
• Have you thought of how difficult it would be to operate your computer with a mouse that is not made for you?

If you haven’t guessed it by now August 13^th is Left Hander’s Day. It is a day to recognize those people that are commonly referred to as ‘Southpaws’ in base-ball terminology.  It is not easy being a leftie, so let me explain the questions I just asked.

If you are a leftie most school desks are made for those who use their right hand. For true lefties the use of the so-called regular scissors is very challenging due to how they are made to fit into your right hand. And finally, your computer mouse is made for right-handed people.

Yes, left hander’s have been nudged in fun for years, but they are very pleased to have their significance in being a Southpaw. As the joke goes; right-handed people operate from the left-side of the brain, and lefties from the right side. So, it is obvious that left-handed people are in their right mind. I know that my spouse Debbie would agree with this as I am a leftie – we never do anything right.

I must admit though that I am not 100% left-handed. I am what some people call ambidextrous, that meaning that I use both my left and right hand at different times and situations. For example, I use my right hand for the computer mouse. I once read that we are all born right-handed but only the greatest overcome the affliction. I’ve also been told that only 10% of the world population is left-handed.

This led me to ask, who are famous left-handed people? Much to my surprise, history is filled with many famous left-handed people;

• John F. Kennedy
• Ronald Reagan
• Queen Elizabeth II
• Aristotle
• Leonardo da Vinci, and
• Albert Einstein.

It is well known that some groups have very little regard for left-handed people. In fact, for many Christians the devil is associated with the left hand. Scientifically being left-handed is related to high blood pressure, schizophrenia and irritable bowel syndrome. When I found this research I smiled, because as a leftie I have low blood pressure, am very even-keeled mentally and have no problems with my bowels. Now some of you are saying ‘too much information’. I beg to differ because when some people reads about health conditions, many adopt them, and I wanted to make sure that other lefties knew that what is written may not be exactly true.

In the U.S. study from 1993, the authors Christopher S. Ruebeck of Lafayette College and Joseph E. Harrington and Robert Moffitt of Johns Hopkins University looked at a typical sample of 5,000 men and women in the United States. They found no apparent difference between the average hourly earnings of left and right-handed people, both groups earned an average of $13.20 per hour. To me the interesting part was that they also had equal average intelligence scores.

In another study, this one from Europe by Kevin Denny of University College Dublin and Vincent O’Sullivan of the University of Warwick, looked at about 5,000 individuals born in 1958 and found very little difference in their earnings: 5 percent higher pay for male lefties in relation to their right-handed counterparts and 5 percent lower pay for female left handers as compared to female right handers.

In conclusion, when you are out and about and you meet someone who is a leftie, give that person a smile, as they are people who had had to learn to become very resilient in this right-handed world, we live in.