SEEKING W

Does she float? Must be a... Southpaws, gallock-handers, chickie paws, scrammies, witches, sinisters… All of these descriptors were, at one time or another, used in conjunction with the 10-15% of the entire population. Which ten percent of the people am I bringing to light here? Those who are dominantly left-handed.

Do you know many left-handed people? I know of a couple - close to filling up a whole hand counting, personally. That isn’t a lot in the context of all the people I know. Do you see those in the left-handed community to be more sinister, devil worshipping, or maniacal? I didn’t really think so, but close to about 50-60 years ago those who were left-handed were still experiencing societal backlash.

In the 1950’s alone (with pre-dating here) it was still hard to find left-handed anything. Everything tailored to the right-handed population; after all, even if you were born with the predisposition with using your left hand, those of prior generations would “correct” you and have you conform to right-handed ways. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to just switch which hand you wrote with because your elder told you to. Try it now. Take any sentence from this column and try to write it with your nondominant hand. It is a bit challenging, no? For those of you that didn’t have much trouble, I would tell you to set aside some time to explore your ability. You fall into a one percentile of the the entire population. Go you!

In relation as to how one becomes left-handed, I will leave that up to the scientific researchers. The paper, “Common Variants in Left/Right Asymmetry Genes and Pathways Are Associated with Relative Hand Skill,” was published in PLOS Genetics and shows “a group of researchers have identified a network of genes that relate to handedness in humans. What’s more, they’ve linked this preference to the development of asymmetry in the body and the brain.” A Pennsylvania State University professor of Psychology, Clare Porac, explains the genetic proposal of hand preference and that there are two alleles (two different manifestations, of one gene, at the same genetic location). One of these two are “D” gene and the other is “C” gene. Porac states, “The D gene is more frequent in the population and is more likely to occur as part of the genetic heritage of an individual. It is the D gene that promotes right-hand preference in the majority of humans. The C gene is less likely to occur within the gene pool, but when it is present, the hand preference of the individual with the C gene is determined randomly. Individuals with the C gene will have a 50 percent chance of being right-handed and a 50 percent chance of being left-handed.”

So, if you are a lucky individual who is lefthanded, I give you a high five! You and I are in a league of our own with a few famous people too. Charlemagne, Aristotle, Marie Curie and Leonardo da Vinci, just to name a few.

ONDER

BY

SAMANTHA Y OCIUS CREATIVE MEDIA