Arts and qualities of the left hand

President Obama in his youth

I never realized the enormous chance of left-handed people to become President of the United States, especially in the past fifty years:

Truman, Ford, Reagan, Bush sr., Clinton – and now Obama.
(source: http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/presidents.html)

But of course, you better be born an American, and I am not. I am a left-handed Dutchman.

I share the sense of specialty with all other left-handed people in our world, and I believe much of what people say about it, sometimes a little mythical perhaps, must have been true for all our history.

On the internet I googled the following text:

(There is) ”… this theory, right-handers solve problems using analysis, or the process of breaking the problem into its pieces and examining each piece in turn, hoping to thereby understand the problem;

In this theory, left-handers solve problems using synthesis, or the process of connecting the dots to understand the big picture, hoping to thereby understand the problem.”

Source: http://www.helium.com/items/763455-why-a-left-handed-obama-will-beat-a-right-handed-clinton.“Why a left-handed Obama will beat a right-handed Clinton”. It was about Hillary Clinton, not her husband, the former left-handed President. But the power of synthesis and filling gaps in our understanding of our world, all of this has become more evident as and when we came to see and hear more of the new American President. McCain 's competition in this respect made no difference, for he is left-handed too. (*)



I share a little history of left-handedness among my forebears and (distant) cousins. We all combine this, without exception, with the gift of creativity. Like our left-handed great-grandmother, many of us are avid amateur artists, dreamers and writers.

In the end it is about bridging and crossing the existing rifts between the people of our world. Much synthesis and dots connecting is required.

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(*) And interesting question nonetheless is whether left-handed politicans will be more inclined to the left, on average, or to the right.