Of Two Minds . . .
November is here. I'm working on saying "no" more often. I'm also working to build new habits. This is proving to be quite challenging at the moment. Still . . . onward :-)
I don't get home until after 6 most nights, so I always miss trick or treaters. I always buy a bag of candy, but, as in previous years, I always end up taking it to work or the dojo. This year, I took it to the dojo. I'm still learning Tai Chi sword. It's challenging in its own ways - probably the most challenging of which is having the sword move me instead of me moving the sword. This is complicated by having to use my non-dominant hand. I am pretty ambidextrous - you had to be when I was growing up. There were no accommodations for "lefties."
I learned to use everything made for right handed people, which I think might have been helpful in getting both sides of my brain to work together, but made for some interesting dilemmas throughout my younger years - my mom dropped some money on some very good left-handed scissors for me back when I was sewing and making all my own clothes. I couldn't cut with them. I'd learned to alter my grip of right-handed scissors in such a way as to make them usable - you "pull" with your hand and thumb. When you do that with left-handed scissors, the blades pull away from each other and don't cut. My mom was not amused.
I was never a sportsy girl, but I did like softball. Here in Chicagoland, we often play 16" softball, and that's not as difficult as slow-pitch softball (which uses a 12" ball), but back in school we played slow-pitch. You need a mitt for slow-pitch and there's the rub - because I'd spent all of my life adapting to a right-handed world, I discovered that batting right-handed was my best plan.
Unfortunately, I had to throw left-handed. Why was that a problem, you ask. Well, all the mitts were for right-handed people, which meant that they were catching with their left hand and throwing with their right. I honestly don't recall if there were any left-handed mitts when I was in high-school - I'm sure there must have been one or two, but I have no recollection of a left-handed mitt. So, I had to use a right-handed mitt, which meant catching in my left hand. Sounds good, right? Yeah - it was, until I had to throw the ball . . . So, although I could bat right handed, and catch in my left hand like a right-handed person would - I could not throw with my right arm.
This necessitated catching the ball in the mitt on my left hand, a quick grab of the ball with my right hand. So far, so good - but then, once the ball was in my right hand I had to move my left arm under my right arm to hold the mitt while I yanked my left hand out of the mitt, transfer the ball from my right hand to my left and then throw. You can imagine how slow that was. 16" softball was better because you don't need a mitt to play, so batting right-handed but catching and throwing left-handed was never as much of an issue. Still, no team was ever amused by my performance (in either style - let's face it, I was always the kid with a book).
Tennis I always played left-handed, but the one and only time I ever golfed, was with my mom at a par 3 course out by O'Hare. I don't even know if it was still there. She insisted that I golf left-handed. Holding a golf club was sort of like holding a baseball bat and I instinctively wanted to play right-handed. She insisted on renting me left-handed clubs. It was a disaster - so much so that I never played again. My mom, once again, was not amused.
I learned to play the guitar right-handed. And the bagpipes. And I've learned Yang Short Form Tai Chi right-handed, and now I'm learning Tai Chi Sword right-handed. As in 16" softball, handedness doesn't seem to be as important in Yang Short Form Tai Chi, but once you add the sword - that seems to be a difference game, so to speak. Once I learn the sword form I've decided I'm going to switch to my left hand and learn it all again with my dominant hand - in the meantime, I'm making new pathways in my brain. :-)
Still - I often feel of two minds, and I wonder if that has any bearing on my current inability to stick with planned processes and goals. Or am I just kidding myself?
What do you think?
I don't get home until after 6 most nights, so I always miss trick or treaters. I always buy a bag of candy, but, as in previous years, I always end up taking it to work or the dojo. This year, I took it to the dojo. I'm still learning Tai Chi sword. It's challenging in its own ways - probably the most challenging of which is having the sword move me instead of me moving the sword. This is complicated by having to use my non-dominant hand. I am pretty ambidextrous - you had to be when I was growing up. There were no accommodations for "lefties."
I learned to use everything made for right handed people, which I think might have been helpful in getting both sides of my brain to work together, but made for some interesting dilemmas throughout my younger years - my mom dropped some money on some very good left-handed scissors for me back when I was sewing and making all my own clothes. I couldn't cut with them. I'd learned to alter my grip of right-handed scissors in such a way as to make them usable - you "pull" with your hand and thumb. When you do that with left-handed scissors, the blades pull away from each other and don't cut. My mom was not amused.
I was never a sportsy girl, but I did like softball. Here in Chicagoland, we often play 16" softball, and that's not as difficult as slow-pitch softball (which uses a 12" ball), but back in school we played slow-pitch. You need a mitt for slow-pitch and there's the rub - because I'd spent all of my life adapting to a right-handed world, I discovered that batting right-handed was my best plan.
Unfortunately, I had to throw left-handed. Why was that a problem, you ask. Well, all the mitts were for right-handed people, which meant that they were catching with their left hand and throwing with their right. I honestly don't recall if there were any left-handed mitts when I was in high-school - I'm sure there must have been one or two, but I have no recollection of a left-handed mitt. So, I had to use a right-handed mitt, which meant catching in my left hand. Sounds good, right? Yeah - it was, until I had to throw the ball . . . So, although I could bat right handed, and catch in my left hand like a right-handed person would - I could not throw with my right arm.
This necessitated catching the ball in the mitt on my left hand, a quick grab of the ball with my right hand. So far, so good - but then, once the ball was in my right hand I had to move my left arm under my right arm to hold the mitt while I yanked my left hand out of the mitt, transfer the ball from my right hand to my left and then throw. You can imagine how slow that was. 16" softball was better because you don't need a mitt to play, so batting right-handed but catching and throwing left-handed was never as much of an issue. Still, no team was ever amused by my performance (in either style - let's face it, I was always the kid with a book).
Tennis I always played left-handed, but the one and only time I ever golfed, was with my mom at a par 3 course out by O'Hare. I don't even know if it was still there. She insisted that I golf left-handed. Holding a golf club was sort of like holding a baseball bat and I instinctively wanted to play right-handed. She insisted on renting me left-handed clubs. It was a disaster - so much so that I never played again. My mom, once again, was not amused.
I learned to play the guitar right-handed. And the bagpipes. And I've learned Yang Short Form Tai Chi right-handed, and now I'm learning Tai Chi Sword right-handed. As in 16" softball, handedness doesn't seem to be as important in Yang Short Form Tai Chi, but once you add the sword - that seems to be a difference game, so to speak. Once I learn the sword form I've decided I'm going to switch to my left hand and learn it all again with my dominant hand - in the meantime, I'm making new pathways in my brain. :-)
Still - I often feel of two minds, and I wonder if that has any bearing on my current inability to stick with planned processes and goals. Or am I just kidding myself?
What do you think?
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