My (illicit) photo of DaVinci’s backward handwriting, from the Uffizi in Florence, Italy, 2018 (security guard caught me before I could take more shots)

Don’t Fit the Mold? Me Neither!

I’ve always been a square-peg-round-hole kind of person. I have never fit into any particular mold, which is why I never hung out with any ‘popular’ crowd in grade or high school (or at any other time in my life). I realized early on that to do that would mean I would have to give up my individual ideas for the sake of the ‘group mentality’ one finds in those so-called popular cliques.

From the outside, they appear to be the kind of people every other kid in school (read: nerds, outsiders and smart kids) yearns to be. Yet anyone who has ever been on the outer edge of one of these social circles knows the truth of their required conformist behavior.

A ‘Different’ Light Bulb

It took me through my early college years to understand the label of ‘different’ and decided it was complimentary even though it was never intended to be anything but demoralizing. I haven’t minded being different. My ideas, ideals, points of view and opinions were almost always the Devil’s Advocate in any room or group and I felt that was my strength, to see what others cannot. What I have struggled with is how I was treated back then, because I didn’t perceive/experience the world the way everyone else did (and still don’t) and how it has shaped my (occasionally negative) self-perception.

All along the way I was bullied by people who couldn’t handle my ‘different-ness’ and thus belittled me because they, it turned out, were the problem. They didn’t know what to do with a kid who saw the world in the unique and colorful way. They sent the message that being different was something terrible/wrong, something others should not or could not tolerate. I upset their status quo and the only way they knew how to respond was to knock me down physically and verbally.

A Genius of a ‘Different’ Color

Leonardo DaVinci, the famous Italian painter (of the Mona Lisa and so much more), was one of those ‘different’ people, in ways perhaps too numerous to count. His artistic talents (painting, sketching, sculpting), math skills (polymath), engineering, architecture and more, were so far ahead of his time that many couldn’t see his brilliance and foresight. To completely define his ‘different-ness,’ DaVinci, left-hand dominant, wrote fluidly in reverse composition (see photo above) in his native Old Italian.

I can use my right/left hands almost equally in some situations but I’m mostly right-hand dominant. I sometimes prefer one over the other in certain situations – I batted lefty/righty in baseball, played field hockey lefty and tennis righty.

It dawned on me that right-handed people write outward from the body. It’s a natural flow of movement. I tried writing backward with my left hand and, though a bit awkward at first, found that writing away from the body on the left side is just as natural. You have spend some time thinking about how to shape the letters in reverse. I was intrigued by the process.

Many ‘experts’ have pondered why Da Vinci wrote in reverse. I can’t help but theorize it was because that is the natural movement/flow for someone who is left-hand dominant. Regardless of the reason, it was one of many aspects that made him different – not wrong, not bad, just different. I can’t imagine our modern life without his contributions, can you?

Celebrate your different-ness. Don’t let others knock you down for seeing the world uniquely. Use your artistic abilities to express who you are and what you see, not who/what others want you to be.

Remember, it’s their failing, not yours.

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