L U N A T A L K with Eva Moon

Righting from the Left

May 31, 2009 on 6:33 am | 1 person has joined the conversation. We need you too. | In General Musing

If my right hand is dominant, does that mean the left is submissive? If it is, it has been willingly and uncomplainingly so all these years, quietly letting the right call the shots, obediently assisting when called upon. The dominant right has been smugly assured of its superior position and, quite frankly, dismissive though occasionally amused by the feeble efforts of its sub.

The tables have turned.

My right hand has been contained in a cast from just below the elbow to the tip of the thumb for a week now. The experience has been… interesting. I am so very right-handed. My left hand has been pressed into active duty and is as helpless as a beached squid. It tremblingly clutches a lipstick tube but won’t move it; I have to actually move my face. When presented with a butter knife and a jar of mayo it dabs weakly at the bread while the right paces and steams, thinking for christ’s sake get on with it.

But slowly, the left is developing a taste for power. It’s handling the mouse pretty well, thank you very much and spooning cereal from the bowl with, if not grace, then at least without creating extra laundry. If this goes on for another twelve weeks, which is one possible scenario, will the left come to regard itself the equal of the right? Will it be content to resume its former submissive position? And what of the right? So far it is peevish and resentful, but will it develop a habit of helplessness? To borrow another term from BDSM, will my hands become switches? I can see the logical advantage of the situation. One never knows the turns or tumbles life will take.

But as I watch this drama unfold, I am reminded of another term from the parlance: Topping from the bottom. Or in this case, I guess, righting from the left.