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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

I sent this last night, but it bounced, so here it is again:


Gene GeRue wrote:

> If I did not allow anything for genetics why would I do exercises to
>  avoid my father's fate?

Getting a hernia is not a disease.  A hernia is an injury.  You were
prudent to do the exercises and learn from the mistakes of your father.
 It is prudent to act wisely to help prevent disease or injury, but it
is my belief that sometimes, it doesn't matter what you do or don't do,
bad things will happen to you and it is not your own fault or anyone
else's.  Shit happens.


>
> It occurs to me that we are being simplistic. We are assuming that 
each of us has a similar definition of genetics. Consider what genetics 
is, where it comes from, how it acts. Not Mendelian genetics, which btw 
were with plants, but commonsense knowledge about
>  how people live and how their children tend to be subject to the
> same environmental conditions and the same nutrition and exercise
> habits.

Those of us who are adopted have a different outlook since we were
raised outside of those "same environmental conditions and the same
nutrition and exercise habits"

> What we call genetics may well be related in cause and effect to what
>  we call instinct.

Instinct is passed down on the genes.  Each species has different
instincts as a survival tool.

When a pattern is repeated for generations it has
> reason to be replicated again. The simplest example I can think of is
>  diet. Who among us has not been influenced by how our parents 
supplied family diet? And where did they get their ideas on the subject? 
How far back might go the habit of eating a particular diet
>  or preparation style? But yesterday's diet fed active people. Today?
>
Again, adoptees break these rules.  I have always loved milk and
dairy...cheese of any kind...my adoptive family never felt the way about
dairy that I have all my life.  It never made sense to me until that
first morning when I met my birthfather and he had a tall glass of milk
for breakfast.  He drank milk 3 meals a day.  He also ate smoked fish,
and other things that I liked that were considered "odd" by my adoptive
family.  IMO, I like those things because of my Finnish genes.  Those
same genes also make my skin lily white and I am more susceptible to
things like melanoma.  My adoptive family is dark complected.  They
laughed at me for wearing hats as a kid, but instinctively, I knew what
to do.

>
> In all ways we are the product of all that has been before. Today we
>  have different environmental, dietary, transportation conditions
> than did our ancestors. Today we have vast information, we have 
substantial free will, we have choice. We make decisions daily and we
>  live or die with the results.
>
> My effort here has been to offer what I have found so far that works
>  for me so I think it has value. I'm glad to have riled a few people
>  up. Thinking is good. Apathy is deadly.

Actually Gene, I have always held you in high esteem, but your
persistence to hold on to the idea that ALL disease is caused by human
action or inaction astounds me, and I am disappointed.  You dropped a
couple of notches on the pedestal.  I still have respect for you even
though we disagree, but I am greatly disappointed in your narrow belief set.

Bev
--
BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm   NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W    Bev is Earth, Ron is Sky