The world is replete with mysteries so common-place that we have stopped thinking of them as mysteries. One that hits close to home for me is being left-handed.
No one knows why some of us are left-handed. One theory is that we lefties are missing a gene that forces right-handedness, leaving our handedness up for grabs. The other main theory is that stress during birth somehow leads to left-handedness. In my case, I was born with a birth defect but there is also some family history of left-handedness, so I guess being left-handed was in the cards for me from the get-go.
Does it matter? Well, that's another open question. My brain probably doesn't work in quite the same way as a right-handed person's brain. It has to do with the division of the brain into a right and left hemisphere and that our dominant hemisphere is opposite from our dominant hand. So theoretically speaking, my right hemisphere pulls most of the weight.
Generally speaking, the left hemisphere is the analytical side while the right hemisphere is the artistic side. Mankind started out pretty even-handed, so to speak, but as tool making kicked into high gear during the Bronze Age, right-handedness became dominant. I guess if early man had decided that cave painting was more important, we'd be mostly left-handers (and maybe a whole hell of a lot better off).
For me, being left-handed was just another way of letting me know that I was different. From where I sit as an adult, that's not such a bad thing to be, but as a child it wasn't always easy. One thing for sure, you learned a lot about people from the way they handled otherness. You still do, I guess.
