become ambidextrous

So I’ve taken my experiment with ambidexterity to the next logical step. Well, it’s logical if you’re in China.

Starting this week I’m writing my weekly poems in Chinese – helping me learn the language, learn poetry, and giving my left hand an extra challenge. I think I’ll alternate languages around a bit; maybe next week will be in Spanish or Ukrainian. Lord knows.

The other big change is in my eating habits: I use chopsticks with my left hand now. There are lots of things that are difficult to eat with chopsticks anyhow (like noodles) and it gives that more a challenge for using my left hand. The trick with chopsticks is not to rely on the strength of grip, but rather on the accuracy of their placement.

Oh – and I got the Chinese equivalent of a stress ball: a thick rubber ring that I squeeze to help build up strength in my hand. It has these odd little protrusions all over it that makes it amazingly uncomfortable, so I’m going to keep up the search for a real stress ball.

I’ve always wanted to learn how to write with my left hand. What if my right hand gets chopped off in a snowblower? Or I decide to pursue neurosurgery? Or I just want to experience the world with two hands rather than one? Or maybe I just want to say that I can?

So to start off, I’ve paired up this goal with the goal of increasing my knowledge of poetry: every day I sit down, pick a famous poem, and copy it with my left hand. I’ve been doing it for five days now and I already see an improvement in my writing… and I’ve memorized two poems. Two birds, one hand.