Common tasks

Growing up, I remember well the lessons I was taught at school and at home about certain things.  I don't know why certain things stuck with me so well when others, like math, quickly departed.  But things like English and Spanish and history took root, and the math and science stuff left.  Left brain, right brain, I can't explain it, although Karen calls me Left Brain occasionally which, although I sort of understand, I really don't.

But the lessons to which I'm referring aren't about school subjects, per se.  These are things that we all do in everyday life.  And how we each gets them done differs slightly in some cases and hugely in others.  Yet we all manage to accomplish the same thing.

Take penmanship, for example.  As we've been told, everyone's hand is different, and only skilled forgers can duplicate someone's handwriting sufficiently to pass scrutiny.  But that's not the subject here.  I'm referring to how we all hold pens or pencils.  I was taught that the correct way to hold the writing instrument is to grip it between the thumb and the forefinger.  Yet I see people gripping it between their thumbs and forefingers and index fingers, others between the thumb and the index finger alone.  I've tried to grip the tool like that and I can barely hold it, much less write with it.

Then there's the script that comes out from the writing.  Doctors are notorious for having bad penmanship, but with the advent of the computer, handwriting has deteriorated horribly.  Even mine has, and I try to maintain a certain degree of legibility.  But how women of a certain age write is interesting, because it's as if their handwriting hasn't matured with them.  Men's on the other hand, hasn't gotten any more legible with age.

Then there's eating.  There are various ways of holding the utensils.  Our parents insisted that we do it a certain way and that's how we do it.  I have seen other people use utensils as if they were cavemen. Either way, it gets the job done.  There is no right or wrong way, but whenever I see this, I wonder what our Mother would have done if I'd held the utensils any other way.

There's also how to put a roll of toilet paper on the roller.  In this instance, I'm talking about a horizontal roller:  Does the paper roll over the top or under the bottom?  I used to do it under the bottom, but in my later years I've switched to over the top.  I was wrong; it's better over the top.

How about brushing one's teeth?  For years, I brushed down with the direction of my teeth.  This I was told by a dentist when I was in my teens.  I've had very few dental problems and thought that this was the correct way to brush as a result.  It wasn't until I got into my forties that I was told by another dentist that this was incorrect, and that I should be brushing them horizontally.  I've since changed.  But for over thirty years I brushed my teeth in the same fashion, incorrectly.

There are probably other examples of this that I'm overlooking.  But I find it fascinating the way we all do the same things, differently.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles