Nature versus nurture is an ongoing debate among scholars, researchers, and parents. The question of which influence is more important, the nature you are born with or the way you are raised from birth, is an interesting topic of conversation, almost impossible to resolve, as you cannot take away the nurture part of the equation to discover how different someone would be if they were raised differently.
Being adopted, I always find it amusing just how well I fit into my family structure. Most of my relatives seem to be pretty artsy craftsy, just like me - musical, artistic, and "sensitive." Since the nature part is out of the question in my particular case, it seems to me nurture must be a pretty strong influence, after all.
This past weekend, I got to attend a reunion for extended family, organized by a second cousin who is forward thinking enough to understand the value in meeting people who are related, even if distantly, and discovering what we can learn about, and from, each other. It was a fascinating look into my family's past, present and future, as people from 3 to 93 gathered together to celebrate our common heritage. It is fascinating, and fun, to see what we have in common; what our shared heritage brings to the table in terms of family habits, traits, and customs.
The most surprising part for me, however, was the realization of how many people I am related to who are very much like me. Rather than being original and unique, it seems I am one of many! Musicians, illustrators, writers - all were represented, just on my own branch of the family tree. Nature versus nurture, indeed. Can it be coincidence that so many artistic people are blooming in our mutual garden?
From the 93 year old librarian who just bought a new computer because her old one was too slow to Google efficiently, to the blues musician who just released yet another CD (he's really good,) to the many writers (who all, oddly enough, seem to be engaged in fantasy writing, my college major, for heaven's sake,) those family ties are binding us together in common experience. And instead of constraining and limiting us, those ties free us further to be who we are, confident in the assurance that we are surrounded and supported by people much like us who understand our struggles and uplift us in the effort.
My great-great grandparents and their six sons started the avalanche of talent that is now hanging on the family tree. I don't know how much of the talent enjoyed by their many descendants are a testament to them. But there is no doubt that the people who gathered together to celebrate them share a happy upbringing in which those talents are nurtured and encouraged.
In the end, it doesn't matter where it all comes from, nature or nurture is immaterial. It only matters that we each represent the family well. So far, so good, I would say!
