Right Handed Face

May 26, 2004

I’ve seen it in a series of self portraits. I cross my right leg over my left if sitting or standing. In repose. On a hotel bed. In a dentist's waiting room. Never left leg over right. The body develops habits and then nothing is symmetrical. There is bilateral symmetry in that we have two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears but none of these pairs are identical twins. One trick knee. One short leg. One narrow foot. One overdeveloped calf. One crooked spine. Each body broken in like a ball glove to fit the parameters of an undisclosed game. Try looking at a close friend’s face in the mirror. It seems so wrong. Freakishly distorted and off balance. Familiarity is built on face to face contact. Their right is on your left. In the mirror their right is on your right. A close approximation of your friend, but somehow sinister and off balance, leers from the mirror. One throwing arm. Crooked smiles. The cocked eyebrow has its favourite side. We think of the answer to the Jeopardy question and roll our eyes up and to the right. Never the other way. One testicle larger than the other. One breast lower. Formed by our lopsided habits we curve our way through the biosphere. A world built, apparently. for right handed people. Left handed people are more accident prone as a result. Try opening all doors with your left hand all day. We are curved and formed and full of habits that favour one side over the other. I have a right handed face.