Sign of the Cross

[mariaclare]

Militant lefties arise!! Sign of the cross with the left hand. Don’t shake anyone’s right hand, make them accommodate you with the left!!!

Good grief. (And, yes, I am left-handed. And I manage to make the sign of the cross, and shake hands, with the right. Were I missing my right arm/hand, I would make other accommodations and assume others will understand, but, blessedly, it is there and it works.)

I actually wonder if you were “taught” to make the sign of the cross with your left hand or if you were just so dominantly left handed at the time that you continued to do so and no one considered it a big enough deal to correct, assuming you would come around eventually? Our memories of such things tend to get distorted. My own grown children will swear they were “told” this-and-that and I know better. And my father always told how his first grade teacher X “made” him write with his right hand, until his mother informed him “SHE DID NOT! Why do you always say that? She even put you in the special desk that accommodated left handed writers. You just decided that year you didn’t want to sit in that desk and changed hands!”)

No, I was definitely taught. I do know what you mean, my sister ‘remembers’ a lot of things that didn’t really happen.

But in this case I remember really struggling with the sign of the cross because I had to do it with my left hand. The teacher would tell 90% of the class to do it one way, and then tell the left handers to do the opposite. Obviously doing the mirror image of something so simple seems extremely easy now, but when you’re six trying to do the opposite of everyone else isn’t easy. You’d look around at the other kids to make sure you were doing it right, and get more confused. If they’d just taught everyone to do it the same there wouldn’t have been a problem. I could have easily imitated the others and done it right handed. I mean, it’s not like writing or playing cricket where you need strength. It’s a hand motion.

I wouldn’t call myself militant, either Apart from whinging rather loudly whenever I’m handed a cake fork (seriously USELESS) life’s okay. Just avoid the spiral notebooks and you’re fine.