11.9.08

Left-brained vs. Left-handed

What is the difference?

Funny you should ask...

I am training right now with Jake at my new work, for Apple refunds, and I thought-- that I was positive, in fact--that I would say that I was without-a-doubt correct that he was left-handed... Turns out, though, that he is, in fact, right-handed, but that he was adopted into a family of ALL left-handed people!

Interesting situation, but, was that all it was?

If I were to tell you which person Jake reminds me of and that has the same mannerisms, way of speaking, etc., I would tell you that my brother, Garrett, was almost exactly the same... In almost every single way!

Remember what I had just said/written (if you can't, then you can take a moment to re-read the above paragraph!)--Jake was born and then immediately adopted by a famil; it turns out that this adopting family is composed of left-handed people... They are a entire-left-handed-family!!!

Why does this interest me? I have been "learning things" from knowing whether or not a pesrson is left-handed... My grandfather, Ben, was completely a right-handed man, for example. And I mean MAN!!! He was born in 1920 on a farm and there was nothing for him to have been taught to him to be left-handed (like a left-handed child that goes to school and is basically FORCED, by the teacher/faculty/parents/piers/etc. to be right-handed... Could this have happened to him?). But, the fact and truth is that he was right-handed. From knowing him, from knowing in part, the way he thought, I also would have assumed and thought that I knew that HE was left-handed!

If he were born now, there is no doubt in my mind that he would have been left-handed. Since he was born in an age and cultur where people/teachers/parents only assumed that every male child was right-handed, he became a carpenter (so, not a painter). He could have, though, easily been able to have become whatever he wanted in life (given a larger variety of choices and opportunities!) including a painter or a sculpter or anything that would have used more of the right-brain than what he was trained to use...

What leads me to that conclusion? Years and years of studying the right-brain/left-side-dominant lifestyle and ways of thinking...

I, on the other hand, am all right-handed and right brain thinking!

I will talk more about any and all of this as I arrive at more firm conclusions and as people respond/ask me questions that spark other aspects to talk about... For some reason, I am COMPLETELY FASCINATED with this idea and would love to integrate this into a solid study/philosophy sometime!

JPS

5 comments:

Cami said...

I'm a little confused about the whole concept. What about my dad or son who are the sole left-handers in our family, and yet they show the same character traits of many of our other family members. Maybe I'm not getting your theory. Is it that left-brain dominant people left to their own devices would end up to be left-handed? Interesting idea. How could we ever know?

JPS said...

Cami,

Thanks for your comment and for another family to be able to learn from... because I have NO THEORY as of yet, I was just putting down "on paper" that which I already knew!

I'm still at the beginning of my own personal research project, but now your family just became another piece of evidence...

Send me an email, if you would, and explain who is left-handed and what their relationship is to the right-handed family members, please...

JPS

Todd Shauna and gang said...

ok Josh, Todd and I are both left handed. I do all sports right handed and Todd does many right and can do some left. Morgan, remember she was adopted - only important for this discussion, she is right handed and does all sports left handed and can not do them right. Todd and I both think very differently! Also, left handed is not a trait you get through your inherited gene pool. All I can show for certain is that the best of us are LEFT HANDED!

JPS said...

Shauna and et-all-readers,

The reason why I am so fascinated with the left-handed/right-handed distinction in using your brain is: It all comes back to people's combatibility (for example, how you, Shauna and Todd, "think differently". I know that you would not be happily married or would even still be dating if you weren't completely opposite in most ways. That means thinking too...

The good news is, even though I say that you two (and every happy couple is like this...) are opposites, you also compliment each other so well!!!

JPS

Beeswax said...

Found you while searching for left-handed and left-brained. I am somewhat ambidextrous, and mostly center-brained, but I lean left.

My theory is that left-handedness either works well, or it doesn't. There is more middle ground with the righties. In my elementary school class of 10 girls (all IQ 150+), half were lefties.

On the other side, doctors often asked my Mother if my mentally handicapped brother (IQ 50) had a left-handed sibling.

Happy to see someone else looking for the same info I am!