For Nolan, this Spring was the first time his left-handedness was brought to his attention as a unique trait. Baseball will do that for a kid with lefty leanings. They bat on the other side of the plate, wear specialty gloves, throw the pitchers for a loop sometimes.
It was his first experience feeling apart from the norm. When he expressed some concern one morning, I told him about my grandpa who was the Babe Ruth of high school baseball and -get this- left handed. I told him that it's super awesome to be a lefty. And then I expanded.
By golly, dear boy! Be proud of who you are! Left is part of it, so love the left! It's a special club! A secret society! High brow, talented, slightly superior people belong to this club! Don't you ever feel lesser! Don't ever think that standing apart is something to fear or resent. Don't ever doubt the way you were engineered. The engineering was perfect and so is the result. And so on and so forth.
He took my lecture to heart. So much so that I caught him telling his right-handed brother that lefties were all around better. Which called for another lecture. I'm a mom. I'm good at those. In any case, we now have a very proud left hander, thanks in part to baseball.
