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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

My Left Foot: Cartwheels and Dominance

I'm right handed.

I eat with my right hand (unless I'm eating ethnic food with people from African countries who are offended by right handed eaters.) I write with my right hand. I wave with my right hand. I shake hands with my right hand. All in all, I'd say my right hand dominates.

Which is why I'm surprised at my left foot. It often likes to be first. It's been this way since I was a child. I can't explain it, and I can't change it.

These are the things that I'm best at when I put my left foot first:
  1. Cartwheels - I'm not sure why, but I always start my cartwheels with my left hand and left foot. If I try a right handed one now, at 42, I'm afraid I'll break something, so I don't even try.
  2. The splits - I can't really do them all the way any more, although I'm sure with some dedicated practice, I could manage. But my left-legged splits are by far the best looking splits I have.
  3. Galloping with my pretend horse - I did this yesterday, when we went for a hike in the woods with the kids. I was wearing my Dansko clogs, and they make a nice cloppity-clop sound on the path, although not quite as good as the Monty Python pretend horse gallopers (but they had servants with coconuts, right? I sure wish I did...) I even tried a right-footed gallop yesterday, but it didn't work. It just felt all wrong.

But, I kick balls with my right foot, so I guess I'm not as exclusive with my left foot as I like to think.

I have a few surprising left-handed quirks too, now that I think about it:

  1. I hold the phone with my left hand. It doesn't even sound right in my right ear. Sometimes, if I talk so long that my left elbow aches and my left ear hurts, I try to switch, but I can't. I have to hang up, instead. It's sad, especially when I still have more to say.
  2. I do puzzles with my left hand. Now this is a weird one. I pick up the puzzle pieces and start putting them in place automatically with my left hand. After a few minutes, I realize what I'm doing, and switch to my right hand. But then I can't do the puzzle as fast, so I try to switch back again. But then my brain starts thinking about the switch, and wonders why I always do that, and things get muddled, and I just stop. This is why I don't like puzzles much.

But, I throw balls and pillows with my right hand, I bowl with my right hand, and I pick my nose with my right hand. So there's no real consistency here, no real pattern I can find.

Can any of you super smart people out there make sense out of this strange cartwheel/puzzle/nose picking hand dominance issue of mine?

Is there a doctor of a hypnotist in the house? The answer could hold important clues.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

it's when your left side starts galloping innocently and your right side is trying to take over the reins without your approval that you have to worry...