with Arlen

GIRL ON A SWING

There is a little girl laying under a tree that's fastened a tiny little rope to a tiny little swing. She doesn't listen to the radio; she just has nature's song. She doesn't watch TV from a world gone wrong. She's never seen airplanes in the sky, Or smelled gas fumes from cars passing by. She never had microwave popcorn or played a Nintendo game. Never used a computer with its memory, she had but one option - to use her brain. The air she breathed was pure and clean, She could drink water from most any stream. Her toys were simple, made from hand. She never had anything made from Japan. She never had to worry about health insurance or how much she'd have to pay, You see when you're dead it doesn't matter anyway. Now the tree, rope and swing have been all turned to stone, The writing on the swing set reads "Our Little Zoe". My great-grandmother took my Grandma to the grave. My Grandma took my mother, and in 1963 she took me and my brother. Zoe Cora-Nov.11, 1872-Nov. 3, 1875 - Not very long to be alive. The rope snapped and she broke her neck my mother said. Before she turned three she was already dead. Zoe, I wanted to be like you. Too many things I've seen that I never wanted to. Now I believe more in faith, love and hope. Were you there with my brother on our swing when I attached the safety rope? Things you've missed since you've been gone - You missed World War I and World War II, But you probably recall when six million Jews joined up with you. You missed fifties music and Rock and Roll that changed this great land. Now there's been rap punk and something I can't even understand. Zoe, you've been remembered and forever will be. When my time comes to meet you will you look for me?

About this article:

I write to open doors, if only in my own mind, as I have locked so many. My perspective or opinions may be different than yours, some of which is noticeable in my writing. I believe the dead are living and the living are dying. Once you accept this, don't dwell on it. There is so much to life. Live, love and be happy. I could not always say this and believe that it was true. I know I'm not doing this well so let me shoot it straight. I am BI-polar. BI-polar disorder untreated has a high suicide rate. If treated a new life begins. You have to live this life, and there is so much to see and to learn. If you would like to hear more, I would be glad to write or talk more about it.

August 13^th, as I am certain most of you are aware, is International Left-Handers Day.  As I have been a lefty all my life, I feel compelled to share some fun facts and some whimsical wisdom with you.  I wish I had started this article sooner and I may have had some statistics on what percentage of Heinrich employees are left handed, but I didn't.  So all I can really say on that matter is that it appears to be at or slightly above the average, which is approximately 13% of the population.

  I found some interesting information as I surfed the net.  First, you know that old theory about left handers use the right side of the brain and vice versa...well, they now say that is not true.  Right handers use their left side, which controls language and speech and left handers use the left and right side, which controls communication pretty evenly.

So what causes left-handedness?  It is passed on genetically just as blue eyes or red hair is.  Fifty percent of children born to two left handed parents will be left handed while only four percent of children born to two right handed parents will be left handed.  As left handedness is a recessive trait, there is almost always left-handedness on both sides of the family to produce a left hander.  I found no statistics on one left and one right handed parent but from personal experience (my husband is right handed), I can tell you it is 100%. I have had some fun teasing him about being the minority in our house a few times. 

  Anthropologists believe in the early days of man, left and right handedness was pretty evenly distributed and that early man used whichever hand was convenient for climbing, hunting or even drawing on the walls.  Very early tools found at excavations were built to be used by either hand.  Somewhere along the line, man started taking preference to one hand over the other.  In fact, they took such a preference that it got to be where society was not sympathetic to left handed persons.  We have all heard the horror stories of making children switch to their left hand to write or risk being whacked with a ruler.  Phrases such as "left handed compliment"," two left feet" and "leftovers" found their way into the dictionary.  Left means sinister in Latin and gauche in French.   In folklore, the Devil is almost always portrayed as left-handed and to throw salt over the left shoulder wards off evil spirits that lurk there.

  The ancient tradition of shaking with your right hand owes its origin to offers of peace.  Presumably, when they would shake with their right hand, they would not have a dagger behind their back, as it would be too hard to stab with their left.

  The Bible contains over 100 favorable references to right handedness and about 25 unfavorable to the left.  In Islam the left is associated with everything unclean.  This may stem from the Mid-eastern custom of using the left hand and water for toilet paper.  Another good reason to shake with your right hand.

  While right handed people rarely think about what hand is being used by another, a southpaw is quick to spot a fellow lefty. 

  Some left handers slip unintentionally into mirror writing...where the words as well as the letters are backwards.  Two noted cases are Lewis Carroll and Leonardo da Vinci.  My daughter did this quite a bit in her kindergarten year of school and her teacher showed some alarm but I wasn't too concerned.  In fact, it kind of makes sense why she would do it.  When a right hander writes, they can see what is going down on paper as they go.  We, on the other hand, are covering up what we write as we go. 

  So, as we lefties struggle through a world made for right handers...telephones, can openers, camcorders, coffee makers, scissors, power tools and spiral notebooks to name a few of the inventions we learn to adapt to, let us celebrate with a few well known lefties from the past and present.   Beethoven, Charlie Chaplin, Isaac Newton, Bob Dylan, Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Michelangelo, Jimi Hendrix, Oprah Winfrey, Jay Leno and David Letterman to name a few.   Also, 50% of the Beatles and 33% of the presidents of the United States were lefties.  Thank you.