Nature VS. Nurture

"    Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” 

Rumi

The radio in my bus remains constantly tuned to the same station all of the time, 89.1 WFDU. It is the radio station of Fairleigh Dickinson University. Their programming is for the most part, retro , featuring music of the 50's, 60's and 70's and no news!(Thank the Lord!)

On Sunday mornings, between 8 & 9 they feature a program called Imagination Station, geared towards kids.While not exactly my cup of tea, I usually listen any way (it's just too much bother to change the station).

Today one of the songs they played was "A seed doesn't have to know it's a seed to grow", a cute little ditty that suggested that we all grow if we just let nature take its course.

WRONG!

There are literally millions of seeds that never take root.

And if by some chance you are that lucky seed that begins to root, there are many variables that come into play that ultimately decide how well you develop.

Nature is but a small part of this process. 

Nurture will determine how strong and healthy you will eventually become.

This is a fact, not a theory.

The same is true for people.

Take me and my brother. 

Same gene pool.

Completely different life experience.

While I struggle and fight to be accepting and loving to myself on a daily basis, my brother wakes up daily with a sense that the world is better now that he is awake.

Although this sounds like a bit of an exaggeration, the point is Eliot is very comfortable being Eliot,while I find this to be a challenge I must address constantly.

The genes ware the same,.

The environment we grew up in however was quite different.

This is not a judgement. 

It's an observation.

There is no good or bad nor positive or negative. 

He is who he is and I am who I am.

No blame, no guilt, no animus,no regrets.

We both have been lucky to have taken root. 

To grow.

A little more sunlight here.

A little too much water there..

Fertile soil verses rocky soil?

Who knows?

Every year, 1 magnificent pine tree is cut down and becomes lucky enough to be the centerpiece for the Nation's Winter Holiday season as it stands all lit up at Rockefeller Center.

Nurture or nature?

Maybe both....however one thing I do know is that the tree doesn't think it is better than the sapling that it stood next to. 

Shavua Tov!