Happy Left Handers Day! I think that you are wonderful, my left-handed friends! Only 10 percent of our population is left handed. My eldest son is a red-headed (only 2 percent of the population), left hander. That means that he is in very small company. Only about 300,000 people in the world (.004 percent of the world’s population) are both gingers and left handers, at the same time. I always told him that he would never be able to be anonymous. He took that sentiment to heart, from the very start. Did you know that Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Queen Victoria and Leonardo DaVinci are famous left handers?
Even in my childhood, I remember there still being a prejudice against being left-handed. Parents were relieved when their kids turned out to be right-handed. Many of my friends’ parents who were born left-handed were forced to go “right handed” against their own very nature.
There is no place for any kind of prejudice in our society. Why do we fear special-ness so much? Why do we want everything to be the same? Why do we not want people to be different than us? Life would be dreadfully boring if we were all the same, just clones of each other, going on forever and ever, like mirrors facing each other. Do we need others to be alike to us, to validate our choices? Why can’t we be comfortable in our own skin? Why can’t we let others be comfortable in theirs?
People would argue that they want life to be “easy and kind” to their children. They think that melting into the crowd helps with “easy and kind.” But if that is what everyone really wants, just fitting in, why is everyone fighting so hard for their 15 minutes of fame on reality shows and social media? Honestly, when do we get our most hair-raising, mind-blowing, perspective changing, life lessons? It’s never during the easy and kind times.
Sometimes I think that people who are born with such unique characteristics that make them stand out from the get-go, are the luckiest people of all. They have had to accept being “different” from the very beginning of their lives. They know nothing else than to stand out from the masses. So, they embrace their unique qualities. They honor unique qualities in others. They don’t have to do anything out of the ordinary, or out of character, to cry out for attention. Maybe the rest of us, who have stayed comfortable in our “ordinariness”, secretly envy those who have never experienced being anonymous in the crowd. Maybe that is why we created mass prejudice in the first place? I don’t know. But I am happy to see the tides changing.
Happy Left Handers Day, my friends. I think you are wonderful.