Sometimes it is easy to look at some people and by looking
at their parents, conclude they hit a jackpot of genetic lotteries rich in disproportionate
dimensions. Sometimes you may look at yourself and life and become convinced
without a shadow of doubt in your mind that you are caught up in a stifling
coil of DNA helices woven into chains which strangle growth, dwarfing potential
and ability to rise and stand tall. You may be go on the journey through life
with knowledge that you have been cursed by deoxyribonucleic acids
with different combinations and permutations of bases, inherited from your
mother and father when that egg and sperm fused to form that first zygotic cell
that is you. Maybe you blame your genes for being too sick, too tall, too fat,
too thin, too ugly, too beautiful, too short, too dull, too intelligent, too
blind and too anything and everything… they say too much of anything is a
disease. It is important to note and remember that part of what we inherit is
not just biological… there is also a societal and cultural DNA we inherit which
constantly interacts with the biological DNAs to shape who and what we become.
This interaction and how we manage and balance it, shapes our drive and zeal
and health and accomplishments and thoughts and habits and character and who we
are and become. Samuel Johnson hit the nail on the head when he said that 'The
chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be
broken.'
One of the things I learned and believe as a
toxicologist/scientist is the verity buried in the fact that the genes load the
gun and the environment pulls the trigger. I argue that many times it does not
matter how much the genes have loaded the gun, if the environmental does not
pull the trigger, the gun will never fire. Prof Steve Jones explores this
further in his fascinating talk:
How well are you managing the interaction between your
inheritances from both within and without the biology of your person? Your
ability to manage this will make you or mar you. This is the reason why genetic disorders could
not stop Toulouse-Lautrec, Queen Victoria, King George III, Nicolo Paganini, Vincent van Gogh, Abraham Lincoln, and a host of many others from leading
fulfilling lives and leaving huge indelible marks in history of humanity. Without a doubt sometimes genes unleash an inheritance of lethal and fatal implications which make life unbearable. If you believe in God, you probably believe that nothing is purely random and it is possible to receive a blessing under the guise of a curse.
© October 2014 afesehngwaHilary
