The Left Handed Club; Jimi Hendrix vs Ringo Starr

For those who are natural outsiders,
seeing yourself as scapegoats, black sheep, 
or identifying with more benign creatures, 
the feeling you have as you go through life
is that whatever you do is not just a rehearsal,
or practice. You had to teach it to yourself
because it often seemed nobody else would.

For many this is partly a conflict
where their being left handed
in right handed world marks them
with an awkward dyspraxia
-until they can adapt their world
to make their gaucheness seem elegant.

There are many modern examples
of making a success out being left handed.
One of them is the drummer Ringo Starr,
whose signature economy of style
comes from how his drum kit is set up
to be played by a right handed player,
but he leads from his left when he plays. 

The other example of changing the rules
that others set to develop your creativity,
when you are left handed is Jimi Hendrix.

He was a man whose talent was too big
and lucrative for him to be easily managed.

The biggest difference Starr and Hendrix
was Brian Epstein, who made relatively little
of the money vast wealth there was to be made
from the talent of The Beatles for the band.
But he knew how to keep his clients safe,
the better for them to marshall their talents.

Hendrix had no such figure to cover him
as he hit the heights in the music business. 

Who would not be awe of the dexterity
that Hendrix shared with how he changed
the recording process, and hugely extended
what could be said economically with a guitar? 
I still wish his instincts had been sharper,
and he had been wiser with the contracts he signed,
and set tighter limits in how he should be managed.

He wanted ease and rest from the chaotic place
his musical genius had brought him to.
His death was banal, for being unconscious
from sleeping pills whilst inhaling his own vomit
from being drunk he died of asphyxiation.

He did not die of being left handed, but he might as well have.

So left-handed people understand yourselves
as best you can, to be clearer about how to live
in right handed world and stop it disorganising you,
disposing of your gifts cheaply and devaluing your life.