my mom is a lefty. maybe this is a grass is greener situation, but i have always felt that the left hand somehow looks more elegant moving across the page. she writes with her hand and forearm above the paper and lines of text to avoid smudging ink. i like her handwriting.
lefties, of course, are also known to announce their superior intelligence and creativity. apparently high numbers of nobel prize winners are left handed. i think contesting their superiority might prove their point.
i’ve been going to two way prayer calls for almost a year now. you write to god (aka higher power, the universe, the still small voice in you, divine intelligence, the mystery, source, Love) and listen for what comes back. for ten minutes. then you share what you wrote (if you want to) and listen to other people’s prayers. the practice is associated with recovery, though i think it’s kind of the premise of prayer in general (wax indignant, desperate enough to surrender to the possibility of unseen support.
at some point after i started, maybe in August, i began writing back with my left hand sometimes. i don’t know why. i found that what the left hand said was kinder, gentler, older, truer; at times even tongue in cheek. i don’t know if it’s because i had to write slower, or because i was accessing another part of my brain. my opposite hand could thwart habit.
one of the root meanings of opposite is “contrary in character, of a totally different nature." it’s also from ob "in front of, in the way of" + ponere "to put, set, place."1 the word is connected to the word position, from proto-Italic *posine-, from PIE *tkine- "to build, live," root *tkei- "to settle, dwell, be home."2 somehow this different ‘position’ brought me closer to home. it felt like putting myself in the way of myself.
i don’t know what happens if you do this with your right hand. lefties, you’re on your own.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/opposite#etymonline_v_7085
https://www.etymonline.com/word/position#etymonline_v_18517
"thwart habit" seems pretty profound when considering our conditioning in this world. In doing Collaborative Inquiry, we often use art to help people make meaning of their experiences. It is not uncommon that we ask people to use their non-dominant hand, as it eases the tendency to make something that looks nice and enhances the tendency to pay attention to what is being expressed! "i found that what the left hand said was kinder, gentler, older, truer;" 😊