The Lefty Likeness

Imagine if you were born left handed but because of something that happened in your foetal development or the environment or the way you moved about after you were born, your right hand became stronger than your left and was more dexterous. As you grew older, you were encouraged to use your right hand and may have been actively discouraged to use your left. Had you been born left handed, they might say, then it would be all right, but anyone who is right handed and wants to be left handed is an crazy, immoral and sinister being. All your protests were met with evidence that your right hand was so much better than your left and so you must be right handed, but you knew that it was only because that was the way you had been brought up. Years of practice at doing things with your right hand meant that you could do things with it really well and years of hiding your left handedness meant that it really had become a less skilful hand even though you always felt more comfortable using that hand.


At some point, you decide enough is enough and you're going to use your left hand after all. Maybe you were lucky and using your left hand again came naturally to you. You were able to immediately go out in society and use your left hand with ease with nobody ever suspecting what you went through. Lady luck isn't a floozy and doesn't shine on everyone, so maybe you only used your left hand on tasks at home and continued to present yourself as a right hander in public. Maybe that's as far as you went but maybe you found out that you weren't the only one that was going through the same problem and decided to join a group of people that met at a private location every month. At each meeting, everyone would openly be left handed and greet each other with left handshakes and write lots of letters left handed. Members might give each tips on how to do things better with their left hand and point out how you might be trying to doing something incorrectly. Some of the members even went out to the local Leftorium each week and drool over the one of only three ever left-handed cars whilst purchasing a replacement left handed can opener. You feel so comfortable there because no-one is judgemental and even righties are allowed in without prejudice. After every outing you feel so sad to have to go home and pretend to be a right hander to your neighbours.


Maybe at some point you decide to take it further. You are going to live your life as the left handed person that you are.... Except for work because that is too important to jeopardise. You wouldn't want to put anyone in a difficult situation if you were unable to use your left hand like you'd been using your right. So every week you go to work as a right hander and then come home and live as a left hander and every weekend is a party, leftie style! Then one day you decide that you need to be completely open and you decide you need to fully transition to a leftie. People who knew you before are a little surprised as they had no idea and they bombard you with questions about why. Since you left it so late to transition, all those years of exclusively using your right hand have set it and you really aren't good at using your left at all even though you are so much more comfortable with it. Some people notice your clumsiness and think you're just a clumsy leftie doing your thing. Others stare and laugh behind your back whilst others ask if you were ever a rightie and ask you all sorts of questions about why and how. You try to answer these questions to the best of your ability and they nod and say "ok" but you know they really don't understand how you feel.


You battle on through the perceived shame before realising, one day, that there is nothing to be guilty about. You are and always have been a valuable person who deserves the same love and respect as any other person. You lost friends because they didn't like going out to dinner with you because you'd always bump elbows and you had to stop playing guitar in that band because they didn't think you were anything like jimi hendrix and you kept jabbing the bassist with your guitar because you weren't use to the new space arrangements. But, that was their loss, not yours. New friends and new opportunities can always be found and friends who lose you over such a matter are shallow and not true friends. After all, life is for living and you need to live the rest of your life with integrity. Live it with respect for yourself and with total harmony for your beliefs and feelings. Friends, enemies and insults may come and go, but it will forever always be only your life.