I come from a left-handed family.

My dad is left-handed. I am left-handed. My oldest daughter is left-handed.

Sadly, my first grandchild, born nearly eight years ago, does not appear to a southpaw. I still love him though.

After more than 50 years of being a lefty, I still find it unusual when I come across someone else writing with the 'wrong' hand. But how rare is it to be left-handed?

BestLife crunched the numbers and found that about ten percent of the world's inhabitants are leftys - that's more than 700 million of us around the globe. It turns out being left-handed is much more common than having red hair or even blue eyes.

While the scientific community is still in the dark as to what leads someone to favor their left side, a human geneticist, Dr. Silvia Paracchini, from the University of St. Andrews, has found some telltale signs in the brains of southpaws.

His research show that left-handers have significantly more nerve fibers in the area that divides the brain’s left and right hemispheres. That allows a lefty's brain to share information between hemispheres at an elevated pace.

It sounds to me like he's saying we're smarter.

Thanks, Doc!

Now if I could just figure out how to use a pair of scissors or write in a spiral notebook without getting a massive hand cramp...


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