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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> Luck, shmuck. See my earlier post on luck.
> 

I still have that post on my inbox.  I was a bit surprised to see it, talking 
about choices having anything to do with the mess in which people find 
themselves used to be very dangerous on this list.  

In the middle ages health was viewed (by those who left any writings at any 
rate) as something that was written in the stars and there was nothing you 
could do about it.  The idea of getting rid of the rats or washing your hands 
was 
ludicrious.  How could that affect what was written in the stars?

Genetics is the modern day astrology.  People are looking for "the" gene that 
causes this or that much as people were looking for the bad alignment of the 
stars (a "dis-aster") in an earlier time.  They found a pattern in a study of 
the stars about to the extent that we find such patterns today in genetics.

All this and a great deal of observation has led me and many others to view 
genetics as a minor factor at best.  I remember person after person after 
person in the 50's and 60's telling me about their smoking, "Ah, when your 
number's 
up, it's up.  Nothing you can do about it."  Now all those people are dead 
and the ones who didn't smoke are pretty much all still alive.  An over 
belief 
in genetics is much like that.

Simon Binet, when he advocated his test for use in selecting candidates for 
the French Civil Service, was asked if the test measured inate, inborn, 
genetic 
ability.  His reply was (to wit) "Even if that were true, to what possible 
use could we put that knowledge?"   

People use genetics as an excuse to dismiss their horrible personal choices.  
But in reality even if you knew you were genetically predisoposed to this or 
that, what difference would that make?   Health is optimized by a peaceful 
mind, good exercise (a code word for 'work'), and the best diet you can get.  
 
This is true whether you have the genes of Superman or a sickly invalid.

As has been pointed out, just looking at the same condition showing up in 
three generations of the same family doesn't do it.  Families also pass down 
attitude and lifestyles.