A bottomless well upon which we have to draw…that’s what I was thinking about as I was about to retire for the night. I’m tired and my mind is doing its restless wandering into the strange, meaningless, and unusual instead of allowing me to relax. Or, perhaps it is my mind’s way of letting go so that I can relax. I suppose that’s immaterial. Nevertheless…
The subject matter of my wanderings had worked around and settled upon genetics; DNA to be exact. Not the scientific explanation or its importance to the world at large, but instead how it should affect me specifically. I am me but I’m also everyone who came before me who contributed to my existence. Now, perhaps there are some traits I’d rather not inherit but I’m also hoping they were dropped off the genetic sequence long before they could possibly be passed along. It could be that they’re like a sleeper cell awaiting the signal to activate or possibly have already exhibited themselves and I’ve managed to overcome them. There’s no way to know about the former and you’d think I’d recall overcoming the urge to commit murder and mayhem.
Anyway, does it not stand to reason that whatever personality we want is literally at our fingertips? Unless ALL of our ancestors were dull and lacking in imagination, should we not all have the inherent ability to be larger than life characters? Of course, I wasn’t really thinking of my inability to shine socially or that my personality seems to have been the redheaded stepchild of the family.
I was thinking more in terms of survival and what it takes to make it through just one more day into the next and repeating that pattern continuously despite all the decision we could make to stop or impede the process called Life. There’s no way that I could possibly exist had not those who came before me possessed the necessary traits to make it through all that life brought their way.
If cast into a well, all the genetic traits…good and bad…should be at my disposal and all I have to do is draw upon them. In my exhausted state, I’m entertaining the theory that the bad will sift to the bottom leaving the good at the top. After all, leaving a freshly drawn bucket of water to sit allows the silt to settle to the bottom allowing you to draw a fresh dipper of water off the top. Right?
Strength, stamina, fortitude…I have them in abundance right there in my well. Had my father not possessed them, I would not exist. Had his father not possessed them, he would not have existed. So forth and so on. Should we not have exactly what we need within ourselves to make our lives what we need them to be providing we’re mentally/chemically sound and not adversely affected by outside chemicals?
I’m at the point in my wanderings where I start opposing my own arguments so I’m off to bed. I think I’ll give some thought to the genetic funny bone and figuring out a way to tap into that.
(image borrowed from rootsweb/ancestry)
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