A Wand'ring Minstrel I

Are you right-brained or left-brained? I have no idea which half of my brain dominates. It is said that people whose left hemisphere dominates are good logical thinkers who excel at math and engineering and always know which way is north. Right-brainers are more creative and intuitive (as opposed to puzzle-solving lefties) and are good at picking up subtle meanings of movies. One can take tests for this kind of thing (there are plenty online, like similarminds.com) but mine usually come out pretty even. So it may be that I am straight down the middle and I'm simply the wrong person to be blogging about this topic. But it may also be that anybody who believes that one side of his brain is stronger than the other and that defines his personality is completely full of shit. Let's go with that assumption.

So I could be left-brained. The sides of the body are putatively controlled by opposite sides of the brain. I'm right-handed, and -footed (I assume; I kick a soccer ball with my right foot). Everything on my right side is slightly bigger than its counterpart on my left (and yes, I mean everything). On standardized tests I do a bit better on math parts than writing or language parts. I think my percentile rankings are about the same though - a nation of left-brainers? I'm a scientist by profession. I've spent about twelve hours of my life trying to figure out a simple answer to Fermat's Enigma.

But I could be right-brained. I'm a musician. I'm even one of the lazy ones who don't really read music, so don't pull any of that music is totally mathematical tripe. Okay, you can pull it a little; I know when I'm in 4/4 or 3/4. But I've failed one class in my life - freshman algebra. I lose my sense of direction after making anything other than a ninety-degree turn, or going inside any kind of a building. I like to read, and I prefer fiction. The only reason I do better in math on tests is that I don't read quickly, and I haven't heard of ADD being associated with either form of brainededness. I make up words like "brainededness."

So I can't claim that either half of my brain stands out. I'm also SO neither Type A nor B. Type A people are social and extroverted, while B Types are reclusive and quiet. They also have names like Carl, I suppose. I know almost nobody who is strongly either. When I'm out with friends I like to talk and hang out; then I like to go home and be by myself. What - doesn't everybody?

I'm simply okay at reading maps - not great, not bad. I can get around with oral directions and landmarks, too. I can do more than one thing at a time if I have to, but I prefer to focus on a task. I win about half the time at Scrabble. I can fix things that go wrong with my car if they've gone wrong before. I excelled at science in school, but more by memorizing facts than learning concepts. I like learning things by being told, but I can learn them from a book, too. People I've seen before tend to look familiar later, but by no means do I "never forget a face." Half my friends are better at math than I am. I have probably written twenty-five songs in my life, but started about five hundred. I know pi to six digits and e to eleven, but I can't subtract multiple-digit numbers without actually crossing out the next higher-order digit and adding ten to the one I'm on (when necessary - you know how to subtract). I nearly failed spelling in fifth grade and now I only use spell-check as a backup.

So I appear to be one of the most human attribute-neutral people on the planet. I'm not even medically underweight anymore. Am I a freak of normalcy?

Would it be reaching too far for me to rail against these human categories, like I just did against astronomical ones? Again, I think it depends on whether I am truly one of the most middle-of-the-road people out there. From what I know of the people close to me, I think there are more like me, but since I'm sure my readers are mostly people who are close to me, please feel free to correct me. And to all 'dlog readers - let me have it; don't spare my feelings. Am I so like everyone else it's weird?