left-right-left

As I was going to sleep last night -- my right shoulder aching as it always does, my right forearm sore as per usual, my right thumb numb and buzzing as it is on and off -- I started thinking about writing with my left hand. I've been reading Beautiful Shadow, a biography of Patricia Highsmith (Stranger on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley, etc., none of which I've read...yet), and I feel a strange kinship with her; the events of her life, her relationships, her quirks seem to parallel some of the things about me and my life.

She was ambidextrous. I thought, as I lay trying to go to sleep, that I could probably write left-handed. I feel like I might lose the use of my right arm at some point in my life, and maybe by starting now, I'll be used to using my left hand by the time that happens, and it won't be as frustrating a process. In the dark I wrote "What would it be like to write with my left hand?" on the covers with my left hand several times. No problem. I believe I could even write backwards!