“If the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body, and the right side of your brain controls the left side of your body, then left-handed people must be the only ones in their right minds.”   – W.C. Fields

As if Hallmark needed another reason to make a card, August 13 is International Left-Handers Day. The nearly two-decade old holiday doesn’t seem to get the recognition it deserves- then again, neither do left-handers.

Not surprisingly, there is a Left-Handers Club that came up with the holiday back in 1992 to “increase public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of being left-handed.” Shall we join in a collective waahhh for southpaws everywhere?

But seriously, I do want to take a moment and say Happy Left-Handers Day to my very own daughter: Twin A., Angela.

I have watched her struggle with scissors, knives, seating arrangements where her arm simply has no place to go, and several other situations that most of us normal- ummm, I mean right-handed folks, never consider. The world is definitely arranged for right-handed people and since I love my daughter today I speak out against this bigotry.

Think of the term itself.  A left-handed compliment is one that is not a compliment at all. The left side of the theater has the “odd” numbered seats. Obviously, left = odd. If you are “left out” well, clearly that isn’t good. The Italian words for left and left-handed are “mancino and mancini” which translate to “defective and deceitful.” A promise you have no intentions of keeping is called a “left-handed oath.”