Lunch guests offers much food for thought

SPORT, art, music, evolution, war, peace and a theory about ambidexterity – these diverse subjects were links in an intricate chain of thought guest speaker Christopher Nicholson produced at the September Tuesday Rostrum lunch.

A human rights lawyer, author and High Court judge, Christopher also proved a captivating speaker, engaging with his listeners throughout his excellent talk. Although dealing with complex concepts and ideas, he put them across simply, often using his delightful sense of humour to make a point.

With three much-acclaimed non-fiction books to his name, Christopher has now turned to fiction writing, recently publishing his first novel, ‘One Hand Washes the Other’. While on the surface it was a mystery thriller, he had used it as a vehicle for some interesting theories he had developed over the years, he explained.

It was these theories that he put forward during his talk – and his listeners were fascinated.

He started with an anecdote about a raid on his kitchen by a gang of vervet monkeys. “Evolve, Evolve!” he had yelled at them in frustration as they’d fled. Why had these primates been left behind homo sapiens in the evolutionary race? After much reading about the subject, he was convinced that it was our opposable thumbs that had allowed our ancestors to make the evolutionary leap that had put them ahead of the race.

An opposable thumb allowed for a powerful, precision grip, an ability that cricketer Dale Steyn made full use of when he delivered a ball. A massive area of the brain controlled the use of our revolutionary thumbs, he explained.

Talking about thumbs, hands and general dexterity, Christopher wondered why 90 percent of the world’s population was right-handed. The word `dexterity’ came from the Latin word, `dexter’, meaning ‘right’. It said something about our attitude towards lefties that ‘left’ in Latin was ‘sinister’, he pointed out. After much research on the preponderance of right-handedness he had come across some theories that seemed to answer his questions.

Right-handedness might have proved a better evolutionary bet for our early ancestors. Primate mothers who had held their babies on their left side, next to their hearts, leaving their right hands free, might have hunted more successfully with quiet babies, comforted by their heartbeat.

Fast-forward to warriors who had fought battles with spears and shield. Those who had held their spears in their right hands, had held their shields in their left hand, inadvertently protecting their hearts. This meant more right-handed warriors would have survived the battle, favouring the right-handed gene. To this day, we used our right, weapon-bearing hand to shake hands, thereby signifying a lack animosity, Christopher pointed out.

His interesting discussion on right-handedness led Christopher to the question of ambidexterity and its advantages, a subject to which, as a keen sportsman, he had devoted much attention. He gave many examples of successful sportsmen who had made use of or developed their ambidexterity to great effect.

He also pointed out that many world-renowned artists, musicians, philosophers and other creative people were ambidextrous, either by birth or through necessity. For instance, a pianist would need to develop both the left and right hand skills. Was it a co-incidence that writers, artists and poets seldom waged wars?

In answer to this question, Christopher pointed out the right hand was controlled by the rational, ‘cold and calculating’, unemotional left hand side of the brain and the left hand, by the creative, empathetic, ‘warm’ right side of the brain. By using both hands and developing our ambidexterity we would strengthen our sporting prowess and other useful physical skills.

Naturally right-handed people who developed their left-handed skills would also develop the creative, empathetic right side of their brains, Christopher pointed out. Perhaps, he concluded, a more widespread ambidexterity would produce better balanced brains, allowing homo sapiens to take another huge evolutionary step – into a more empathetic, creative and kinder era, perhaps even into a world without war.