Obama and I have something in common. Finally.

OK, this one is out of left field, but my life changed dramatically this week.  After decades of ink-stained hands and smeared or scratchy writing, I finally did an online search and ordered a fountain pen for southpaws.

You might not have noticed there’s a difference.  The customer service rep explained to me that left-handers push the pen – right-handers pull it. This requires a different nib. It also requires fast-drying ink. Also, the grip on most pens is positioned for the left hand. (She also explained that Europeans prefer fine nibs; Americans need more substantial ones – apparently we push too hard. Go figure.)

I’ve always had pen envy, so the “student” Pelikano for lefties has been a godsend since it arrived from Massachusetts to the Left Coast. It keeps me from the effect of having ink splashed all over the side of my hand as I drag my hand across my writing. So gauche.

I noticed on CNN that President Obama seems to have the same problem I do – like me, he is an “overwriter,” with his arm hunched up over the paper.

Our leftist president has company:  not only Bill Clinton, but  Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush can be counted among the lefties. Who knew?  Ronald Reagan, too, can be included on the roster. He is rumored to have started life left-handed, but was forced to adopt right-handed ways. The King’s Speech has brought before the public the sinister effects of determined right-handers imposing their way of life on others —  even George VI was forced to make the switch.  Maybe it’s time we purge all the negative words associated with being left-handed — isn’t it bad enough we have shorter lifespans?

Which is a backhanded way of suggesting that it’s not too late to get a left-handed pen for Obama in time for his birthday. It’s in August. He’s a Leo. Like me.

Author: Cynthia Haven

Cynthia Haven has written for The Times Literary Supplement, The Nation, The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, World Literature Today, and other publications. Her work has also appeared in Le Monde, La Repubblica, The Kenyon Review, Quarterly Conversation, The Georgia Review, Civilization, and others. She has been a Milena Jesenská Journalism Fellow with the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna. Peter Dale in Conversation with Cynthia Haven was published in London, 2005. Her Czestaw Mitosz: Conversations was published in 2006; Joseph Brodsky: Conversations in 2003; An Invisible Rope: Portraits of Czestaw Mitosz was published in 2011 with Ohio University Press / Swallow Press. She is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford. Her biography René Girard, A Life will be published next year. Join me at twitter: @chaven View all posts by Cynthia Haven