My Tangent – Classified DNA – Rush of Endorphins

Morning,

No rain, no snow, frost on the ground, more decisions of Mother Nature to destroy my garden, and the rose bushes seem to be thriving.

I was listening to the NBC announcers last night comment on the fact that the competitors in the Winter Olympics and the Daytona 500 are those type of persons with a different brand of DNA. The commentators deliberated to the fact that these persons, after showing clips of athletes and fast-moving cars wiping out, crashing, spinning-out through acts of extreme feats and heights just had to have a different DNA, and they implied a more special factor. Their DNA dynamics, sort-of the take home message, was either “better”, “stronger”, or just plain “amazing”. And then they continued that these persons, with the extra-super-DNA elements, were more super-human than the “run-of-the-mill” normal persons.

Maybe so… but the thought that kept going through my head was that their hairspray must have foiled and tempered with their DNA strands. And I kept on thinking that these bozos really are trying to create filler; just get back to the competition coverage.

From my understanding of genetic DNA, theoretically we all stem from some original source. And therefore we all have equal opportunities to mutate to those degrees of which we may or may not be destined. I don’t think I could go as far as saying, but then again what do I know, that this person is genetically pre-dispositioned to be a good chef, or a good pianist, or a reader, or a farmer, or stock-car driver, or (heaven forbid) a banker, or a teacher, or a mogul-hot-dog-skier. Certainly sounds like Aldous Huxley is feeling that rush of “I told you so” as he so succinctly classified into his Brave New World.

And some of us when we commit ourselves to the search of our genealogy and research our ancestry, we are looking for that “pot o’gold” or hint of blue-blood at the end of our fragile branches. I’m not so sure that we can claim the successes or failures of our ancestors as our own. I do know that what they were or did becomes a part of our each own history… And of course, I really know that this discussion is going to be short. It may be a question of heredity versus environment, nature versus nurture.

The one thing that I am sure of, we all seem to get a rush of “greatness”, a sense of success and well-being, a feeling of “endorphin-high” when we succeed at a task or a challenge that we put before ourselves.

Enjoy,

Jim