If you’re feeling a little bored and have a hankering for seeing—or feeling—the world anew, give this a try: use your non-dominant hand (for most, your left) in everyday tasks, like washing dishes, opening the door, shoveling cereal, moving your mouse…you get the idea. Pretty soon, you’ll feel like you’re in kindergarten again, awkward and clumsy and wondering how certain things ever get done—how, for instance, do you get the last spoonful of cereal in your mouth when your left fingers haven’t quite grasped the finer motor skills of gripping the spoon handle just so, just the right way to scoop up the final flakes. Also, this makes you start imagining what being disabled is like…
The thing is, it’s not just your left hand that gets taken for a ride—your right hand feels awkward and off-kilter, too, as you switch your usual right and left-hand maneuvering combinations; your right hand takes over the motions assumed by the left, and vice versa. You can just see your neurons firing all sorts of synaptic links. (Hopefully, other links aren’t being severed. Tonight, I put our cordless phone back on its charger with my right hand, and missed it. Am I losing my right-hand capabilities?)
Such are the thoughts and actions possible when a full-time job or baby doesn’t occupy your minutes and hours. Ahh, the life. Other zany ideas welcome here.
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