Think About It. Big Questions. It starts with a brain nurturing lunch of oxymoronically large shrimp, baby spinach salad and Florida corn ala cob shared by a California man of the cloth strangely fond of da Bears. Duh? Perhaps not surprisingly our thoughts turned to a critical examination of the nature of free will. Our first act of independent choice was us to ponder the source of inspiration leading sometimes to what we call genius. But then, there are Apps for that now. Don’t leave. It gets good. Well, it gets deep anyway.
Two otherwise seemingly bright men waded into the push-pull of the occasional government-granted research to find the reasons why identical twins reared together can be so different in manner and mental development. Or for that matter why others separated at birth are found to be quite alike in attitude and aptitude many years later.
Early studies developed the theory that there seemed to be a balance between Heredity and Environment. This apparently came as a surprise to the first inquiring minds. While we seemed to live with that judgment for awhile, seekers of truth in a psychobabble generation convinced their scholastic sponsors to help get a financial help to learn that it was in fact Nature and Nurture. Not to be outdone by their (for them) prehistoric elders, a new class of sophomoric cerebral sponges eventually concluded (drum roll please) Genes and Jeans?
Perhaps this sounds like your average chat overheard at a White Castle wedding rehearsal. It was in fact in the comfort this seasoned citizen’s home with one of the truly fine men of my world. Without wine, but with some compliments and lots of talk about the way disparate forces affect the lives of all earthbound people, my son-in-law and I dug deep into our well of thought and concluded that some younger member of our family should gain fame by finding a grant writer to make a case for government funding to learn why we are like we are.
Leaving a last lonely wheat roll, Steve said time was prompting his need to withdraw from our sharing of food and philosophy. But was it really determinism that had pre-ordained the conclusion? Parting with love we still found ourselves asking the Big Questions. Think About It.