The Peppermint Fence
A righty by habit, I began using the mouse with my left hand earlier today, because overuse is killing my right hand and wrist.
Some of you may know the following little bit. For a long time I thought that as a baby I’d begun using my left hand as the dominant one, but that my mom had trained me to use my right hand to eat, write, throw, et cetera. I’d been telling people this for as long as I could remember. When I was younger I would try to activate, or re-activate, my left hand and practice writing alternatingly with each hand. Almost three years ago my boyfriend and I, about a month or so after we’d met, went to visit my family in Illinois for my birthday. This was when my boyfriend, who by the way is a proud lefty, and my family first met. He said something jokingly to my mom about how she’d switched me from lefty to righty. After a nano-furrow of the eyebrow, she said, "I didn’t do that. She’s always been right-handed."
What?! I was in total disbelief. That I had been a lefty switched to righty had become a fundamental component of my identity’s architecture.
This changed everything. I won't ever know who’s right. Times before, my mom has had no memory of an event involving the two of us that I remembered vividly. Like when she’d told me her favorite candy bar was 100 Grand, and then later when I said it in passing, she denied it vehemently. Why would I make that up? The 100 Grand is not part of my sphere; I have no political agenda with that chocolate bar. At the same time, I have always had a vivid imagination; e.g. the Smurfs waited around the corner for me in the hallway at my grandma’s house; I used the Candy Land board in my white-sand sandbox--topped with a red-and-white striped canopy--at my grandma’s house to physically get to Candy Land. Probably I did get there. And probably my mom at some point did tell me her favorite candy bar was 100 Grand. And probably I used to be a lefty.
What difference it makes I don’t know. I am on a fence.
A FENCE = sinister(left) + dexter(right) < looping = infinite doorways
Some of you may know the following little bit. For a long time I thought that as a baby I’d begun using my left hand as the dominant one, but that my mom had trained me to use my right hand to eat, write, throw, et cetera. I’d been telling people this for as long as I could remember. When I was younger I would try to activate, or re-activate, my left hand and practice writing alternatingly with each hand. Almost three years ago my boyfriend and I, about a month or so after we’d met, went to visit my family in Illinois for my birthday. This was when my boyfriend, who by the way is a proud lefty, and my family first met. He said something jokingly to my mom about how she’d switched me from lefty to righty. After a nano-furrow of the eyebrow, she said, "I didn’t do that. She’s always been right-handed."
What?! I was in total disbelief. That I had been a lefty switched to righty had become a fundamental component of my identity’s architecture.
This changed everything. I won't ever know who’s right. Times before, my mom has had no memory of an event involving the two of us that I remembered vividly. Like when she’d told me her favorite candy bar was 100 Grand, and then later when I said it in passing, she denied it vehemently. Why would I make that up? The 100 Grand is not part of my sphere; I have no political agenda with that chocolate bar. At the same time, I have always had a vivid imagination; e.g. the Smurfs waited around the corner for me in the hallway at my grandma’s house; I used the Candy Land board in my white-sand sandbox--topped with a red-and-white striped canopy--at my grandma’s house to physically get to Candy Land. Probably I did get there. And probably my mom at some point did tell me her favorite candy bar was 100 Grand. And probably I used to be a lefty.
What difference it makes I don’t know. I am on a fence.
A FENCE = sinister(left) + dexter(right) < looping = infinite doorways
10 Comments:
My mother does this as well. They are all crazy.
...which directs us back to Kim's recent post about her mom. Nuts and bananas.
Now you got me worried because my mom agrees with me on everything. “Sure, son, I do remember that time you set out to swim from Sandy Hook ways up the Shrewsbury.” “But, mom, I did try.” “Sure, son, of course you did.” And she’ll go on setting the table, checking on the stew. (And I know she’s like whistleling under her breath.) “Hey, Mom,” I’ll say in a final attempt to defeat her, “I love what you’re doing with your hair?” Just kills her.
Alberto
when i was in preschool they tried to change me from a lefty to a righty until my mom found out what they were doing. she marched in and told them she was yanking me out if they ever tried it again. my grandmother and my uncle are also lefties, so dad's the odd-man out when we eat together.
but my mom has been marching into schools and telling them off for all us kids my entire life.
Perfect. I think using that line ("I lover what you're doing with your hair") more often, in various "stuck" instances, would be worthwhile.
I also have wondered about the validity of my memories when, cross-referenced with another's, they don't match up. I rarely used to take the time to track things in a more permanent manner trusting in my brain instead, which may not be a good idea it seems. Or other people's memories might be off. Why WOULD you want to make up a story about $100 Grand candy bars (tasty as they are)? When young, I was only converted over to righty in the use of scissors but I've tried for the past decade and a half to be a righty drummer yet my left is still stronger and this leads to sloppiness. So regarding the lefty conversion thing, you can view it 2 ways I suppose. Either you switched over to righty so adeptly you cannot tell which was the natural one (which is cool), or you never were a lefty afterall and you'll live longer (some studies say lefties die younger) which may or may not be cool depending on your view of life.
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Righties live, on average, 10 years longer than lefties but lefty pitchers in the Major Leagues make about twice as much money per year as their righty counterparts. It's a trade off ;-)
Also, my mom's favorite candy bar was 100 Grand, at least that what I seem to remember, too. She pulls the "I never said that" line all the time.
8ZERO8: How curious our mothers both favor 100 Grand, and that it's a topic that even came up in both spheres, if that's even the truth at all.
http://www.hastings.edu/html/activities/candyland.html
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