As the political campaigns heats up again (sigh), I’m fascinated by the political labeling. We have red, blue and purple states (and perhaps red, blue and purple people).
We have conservatives, liberals and moderates. (Not too many of that last group, unfortunately.)
And, of course, we have the “right” and the “left.” This is perhaps the most pervasive of the labels, because we use the words so often in daily, non-political speech.
After all, if you’re “right,” you’re “correct.” What a nice, positive statement. But we don’t say someone is “left,” do we?
Any driver will tell you it’s easier to go “right” than go “left.” And it can be tricky to follow the directions to “turn right here left” or “turn left right here.”
But you can be “left” behind (not good, generally, although it might be good in some circumstances). And we say someone “left;” we never say someone “righted.”
As a left-hander, I know too well how much in this world favors the right. I’m reminded of that saying: “If the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, then only left-handed people are in their right minds.”
