Being left-handedIf all men are supposed to be created equal, then why not my two hands?
You guessed right. I am a left-handed person, a Zuo Pie Zi and I have never tried to conceal it from being known by my friends or any one around me. But after all those years of living with this distinct feature of mine, I’d now like to consider whether I should ever let more people know my little open secret. For I never expected being left-handed in such an open-minded modern society could have
been such an inconvenience when eating out with others. I may be, hopefully, a
little oversensitive about my own hands. If otherwise, it must be those so called right-handed who are.
Since childhood, I was told to consign all my daily tasks to my prioritized right hand. I was so dismayed that my left one just persisted and never let go of anything I could get hold of with it, such as a tooth bush, a pair of chopsticks or a ping pong bat. Not the pen though. This was because, luckily, my primary school handwriting teacher never figured out how to teacher her class to be able to
write Chinese characters with the left hand. In fact, I did start holding a pencil in a handwriting class with my left hand. But somehow I made concessions and
followed suit of others. The teacher was happy and everybody else nodded their
heads.
Back at home, it would be a totally different case. My parents attempted so very
hard ever to convert me into a right-handed child at the dining table, three meals a day. But the chopsticks never went the right way in my right hand. They fought against each other and that exasperated my parents so much that later on they gave up their effort of converting me and said it was out of the concern that
I might not eat well and therefore got under-developed because of the bad mood
each time caused by the struggles between my hand and food. At last, my stubborn
left little one prevailed upon their exhaustion.
Well, there is one thing that has always, even till this day, been a great comfort to my dad and mom though, that I can invariably succeed in holding a spoon with my right hand with the same dignity and decency as a right-handed. I am so proud of myself.
I still don’t understand why there have been so many people in the past that ever attempted to persuade me into the “right” group. What is wrong with the left hand? Why have I somehow unknowingly fallen into the category of the minority?
Why people ever winked at me when I showed my “true hand” that so surprised others and I was put to shame and embarrassment? My left hand used to be such a pathetic bodily possession and I just wanted to hide it behind my back and walk away.
There was one time that I felt so annoyed when several classmates so simply-mindedly labeled me as a Zuo Pie Zi while ignoring my other distinguishable qualities, such as my smartness and born sense of humor, etc, which could have better defined me as a more agreeable character. I let out my anger and my left hand was
for the very first time put to use in violence, which even at this moment, I am
still left in misty clouds why I lost my control that day. Funny, I feel funny.
So many years passed. I survived and the table is turning….
The other day, I went out for dinner together with a few friends of mine. As usual, I picked up the chopsticks and started to take my share of food. The food was superb! I couldn’t help being so indulged in trying all those delicious dishes until my good mood was ruined by one of them who suddenly looked so amazed as
if she discovered a new continent from my hand, asking “How come you are a left
-handed (or Zuo Pie Zi)! Wow! I envy you so much! The left-handed people are so
talented, you know? Like Einstein! So strange I had never noticed you could use
your left-hand to hold chopsticks! Scientists have proved that the left-handed people have far more developed right brain to work with! No wonder you are so much smarter than most of us! It is so enviable!” Then all of a sudden, I became the apple of their eye and some of them even started to imitate the may I was holding the chopsticks. Then it was all about how many left-handed people they have
seen before and what very rare stories they remembered about those very famous
left-handed, whom I never tried to make a remembrance of. The dinner? I came back home half hungry.
Now it is about some of those right-handed people or You Pie Zi who want so much
to be converted to the “leftists”. My left hand is getting noble and respected while the innocent right is being neglected. This I didn’t expect and this I
don’t really appreciate.
If all men are supposed to be created equal, then why not my two hands? They two
are my most faithful and helpful friends since my first birth day but this world they are living through with me is surely too complicated to understand and follow for them. They will feel like victims if they both have consciousness. Funny! I feel so funny about all this!
Anyway, I am not that left-handed though. I do write with my right hand, remember? And these days, with a computer, both my hands are working on the keyboard efficiently. They are close partners and shall never be counted as the superior and the inferior.
Charlie
