What I'm really thinking about today is whether the basic building blocks that make us who we are also determine how we behave. This comes back to the Nature vs Nurture argument and although many really intelligent people have talked to me about this, I've never landed clearly on exactly what I believe. I have a couple of examples here that give me a moment to stop and think, and I wonder if they will for you.
I was a Senior in high school, a long long time ago. If you remember my house, we had parking for two cars on the top level, just outside the kitchen door. This was the door that everyone we knew came and went from that house. Anyway, on this particular evening, my mother and friends were sitting on the patio, just talking. I came home, parked in the parking place furthest from the house and came up to join the group. Some time later, my sister, Jaye, came home and parked in the place closest to the house. When she came through the gate in the fence, everyone started laughing. Neither Jaye nor I knew what this was about, but we quickly came to learn that as we had each gotten out of the car, the things that we had done and the mannerisms we employed had been identical. Was this in the DNA, or just because we had lived around each other for so long? I'm not sure, but I do know that if you call me a friend, and you meet my sister somewhere else, you will quickly recognize that we are related. Yes, there is a family resemblance, but more than that, the mannerisms that we both have are very similar. I don't know if genetics go to that level.
Okay, second example. My grandfather drove a truck for Keokuk County, helping to maintain the county roads. To say that he knew all of the roads in the county was a big understatement. On top of this, he loved to drive around on Sunday and see what was going on in the county, or see where he thought that his crew should work the next week. This was always an "everyone in the car" type of event and we covered many, many miles in an afternoon without ever leaving the county. This was always enjoyable as we learned a lot. But the part that makes me wonder about basic proclivities had to do not with the trip, but with his house and barn. Almost without exception, as we headed out for one of these excursions, Grandpa would ask if the barn door was closed. As many times as not, we would turn around and go back to check. Of course, it got to the point that Jaye and I would just go check before we even got in the car.
The interesting point here is not about my grandfather, it is about me. Obviously, I don't have a barn door to worry about, but, I do have a garage door. And although the two items don't seem much alike, and I should be able to sit in front of the house and know if I closed the garage door, it is amazing how many times I get a few blocks from the house and wonder if I closed it. We live in a cul-de-sac, and I'm sure that I have neighbors who think I am crazy as they see me leave one direction, and in a few minutes come back from the other direction, drive by, and leave again. Okay, when I say it, it even seems a little crazy to me.
So, I guess that I am really wondering, if the family heritage that we have affects our hair and eye color and things of that sort, or does it mold the way that we think? Maybe this is part of the reason that many of us reach the point where we say out loud that we are becoming our parents. Maybe we never had a choice and this was just the way that it was going to be.
Oh my ...
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