Am I Going To Hell For Being Left-Handed?
Why does anyone care which hand I use
It’s not such a bad thing to be left-handed anymore, many people actually are. A lot of my friends are left-handed, a lot of celebrities are left-handed, and we’ve all heard that left-handed people are supposed to be more creative than right-handed people. I feel like it’s not such a big thing that is talked about anymore in the UK (I’m making an effort to cut out all the parts in history where people literally linked left-handed people to the devil).
However, in India and Indian culture, there seems to be a recurring theme to squash all left-handedness out of people. My parents were always told to never let me eat with my left hand, and to always eat with just the right- not just by random strangers but by our own family members. It was also a big topic of discussion when I was younger that I was encouraged to write with my right hand, instead of my left. My parents never listened, thanks to a friend of my mum’s convincing her to let me be as it might mess my brain up and I might develop a stammer (thank you, child psychologist, who I don’t even remember anymore). After hearing that, my parents told me to never listen to people who told me to do things with my right hand… unless it came to going to the temple.
We receive an offering at the temple, usually a piece of sweet that’s been freshly prepared. Of course, my instinct is to offer up my left hand to get it, but every single time I get nudged by someone in order to use my right hand.
I have never had a straight answer when I ask why I can’t use my left hand, I normally get a response on the lines of “That’s just what we do”. I normally retaliate with “But God wouldn’t care what hand I use”, which I still stand by as a good argument. It doesn’t normally go down well with everyone else.
I know it’s not exactly a difficult thing to remember to do every time we go to the temple, but it still riles me up. It feels like people literally descend into chaos and panic when I lift my left arm up to take the offering. I just end up feeling alienated from everyone else, or like I’m not normal.
But it actually is a very normal thing, and just because we’re not the majority doesn’t mean otherwise. I can’t understand why it would be a good or a bad thing when it’s something based on the way your brain has been wired.
Maybe there is some deep, hidden away scientific reason why being right-handed is better than being left-handed, I just haven’t found it yet. But at the very least, I hope I don’t end up in hell- at least for my left-handedness.
