To the Left

The handshake. This morning a client was leaving and my 17 year old son met her for the first time and with arms full, he freed up his left hand to shake hers...I started to correct him saying "Matthew, it is the right hand that" and he cut me off, saying, "I know mum". My client stated, "I'm left handed and that felt right" and I quickly had a moment of ahhh, that felt right and I apologized to my teenager as he was disappearing around the corner. What followed was fascinating. My client gave me, my son (slightly out of earshot at this point) and listening mom a brief history lesson on handshakes and I looked it up on the Internet and found this: the handshake is generally thought to have developed as a gesture to demonstrate neither side is carrying a weapon in their right hand and that each person comes in peace; a handshake between two people expresses a willingness for equality and balance. Well now, this is an amazing revelation for me and it all makes sense that since many people are right handed, it would be the right hand that would historically be displayed as safe and weaponless. A wonderful and useful physical agreement between two potentially dangerous and opposing people and by people, I mean men. During a conversation with a friend I was reminded of a sad and strange thing parents were encouraged to impose on their left handed children. The child was often forced to learn how to write and use their right hand for everything when their natural inclination was to use the left...what kind of horror and hell is this? Right handed shaking is an out of time story that is now used as a form of "you can trust me in business, we just shook hands" exchange and has become a rule, a point of etiquette and as you recall from the top of the story, I had fallen into the trap of attempting to correct my son when he didn't "do something just right", yes yes, pun intended. This brings me to my point: traditions are lovely and meaningful and I have to admit, I enjoy me some good strong right handed hand shakes but maybe I am weak, imbalanced and could benefit from some good strong teach me a new way left handed handshakes? I like to learn new things, new ways. What about you, are you willing to play and offer your left hand when next you meet a new person in your life? It may feel just right, for both of you.