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| Something Sinister at Trendlines |
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We live in a right-handed world. "Left-handedness has been, and in some cases still is, considered an inconvenience, a bad habit, or a symbol of the 'sinister,'" according to Monica Watkins.
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| sinister: on the left side, unlucky, inauspicious; of, relating to, or situated to the left or on the left side of something.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
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What do Jack the Ripper, Billy the Kid, and Bart Simpson have in common? They were all left-handed. As were Alexander the Great, Michaelangelo, Marilyn Monroe, and Kermit the Frog. And then there's Steve, Todd, David, Kippy, and Karen — our fellow Trendliners. The list of famous left-handers is an awesome one.
 Myths surrounding left-handedness are no less common today than during the 1600s when left-handers were burned at the stake for suspicion of "witchcraft" and "sorcery," according to Lorin's Left-handed Site. Myths still doing the rounds include: the Myth of the Dreamy, Emotional, and Non-linguistic Left-hander; the hand-bone is connected to the foot bone (the "sidedness" myth); the myth of the "Left-handed Culture."
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If you've ever wondered why virtually all of the world's religions associate the left with that which is evil or dirty, Lorin's site tells us that sun-worship may be to blame. The majority of humankind also always lived in the northern hemisphere, and therefore, when tracking the sun across the sky, most will have faced south, following the path of the sun from left to right. Earliest forms of religion manifested themselves through sun worship, and, very early on, humankind may have developed an association between rightward movement and what is good. Vestiges of our tendency to track the sun from left to right still remain today. Clocks go in this direction, and so do compasses. Even the Japanese word for left, "hidari," was derived from the words for "sun" and "on."
And why do we wear wedding bands on the third finger of the left-hand when the left is associated with sin and filth? Again, according to Lorin's site, early Egyptians believed that the vena amoris (love vein) ran from the third finger of the left-hand to the heart, and placing the wedding ring on this finger would provide a closer connection with one's heart.
Apparently, 11% of Americans and Europeans are left-handed. Men are more likely (13%) to be left-handed than women (10%). None of this, of course, explains why we have so many lefties at Trendlines, including our founding fathers, Todd and Steve.
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| A Final Word |
Left-handers are often found among the highest ranks of artists and scientists, far out of proportion to our numbers in the population at large. Left-handers in school tend to be both bright and unconventional." I rest my case. And, in case you are thinking to yourself that there are bound to be a disproportionate number of left-handers in Trendlines, being as how Hebrew is written from right to left and therefore left-handedness might be expected to be more prevalent (no smudging the words you have just written...), Israel has the same proportion of left-handers as the worldwide average.
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