I’m left-handed. The only one in either my immediate family for at least three generations.
My daughter asked me tonight at dinner why I was left-handed. What peculiar outcome of nature or nurture caused it?
I think the answer is complicated, and I can’t speak to the genetics. What I do feel certain of, though, is that there is some reason why it’s valuable to have members of your community with both right- and left-hand dominance.
What I don’t understand is why humans didn’t evolve to be universally ambidextrous. Surely having dominant characteristics in both hands is worthwhile!
The same is true for any traits that aren’t distributed uniformly among humans. Musical prowess. Drawing skills. Athleticism.
And what I come back to is this: we are made to be communities. And so many skills are more useful when they are built up in one place. Just like cold groceries stay cold better when they’re all loaded in the same bag.
We are made to be communities, and so we have different skills, so we can better serve the community we belong to.