Wilkinson’s Genetics
Jason Kuznicki on Apr 16th 2008
My colleague Will Wilkinson is thought-provoking as usual:
A while back, on a lark, I googled my maternal grandfather, Leo Draveling. . .
Never met the man. He died when my mom was a teenager. He was apparently something of a brute and not entirely admirable. Roots mean somewhat less for me than for most people. That about a quarter of my genes are his makes his story part of mine only in a small causal sense. If this minimum of significance becomes meaningful or deep, then it is because I choose to make up a story about myself in which it plays that role. I don’t. My junior high English teacher (or the sum total of things I have eaten, for that matter) have more to do with what I am.
It reminded me of something I wrote a while ago, back in the time when no one read my blog and I was unafraid to take risks:
“Welcome to the new religion, my friend. Genetics. It’s the religion that everyone carries inside them, but that no one dares to acknowledge as such. Call it the hate that dare not speak its name. And tonight, I’m going to lay it all out on the table.
“Let’s start with the first principles: Each individual’s life is meager and finite. In the end, all of us are frustrated; all of us fail. Everything we do melts into muck and ruin. A couple hundred years from now, no one will remember or even care that you have been.
“But the species, the species can live forever. The species can succeed. The species can find its own fulfillment. O meager human, there is only one way that you can take part in that eternal life: Reproduce. Nothing could be simpler. If you pass on your genes, then a part of you lives to fight again–no matter what your failings in this life may be.”
“Meet the new boss,” the Cynic said dismally.
“Indeed!” replied the Devil’s Advocate. “God may well be dead–I mean, who really knows–but these days, DNA holds up the Great Chain of Being. Where mankind once found continuity in the stories of Heaven and Hell, now he’s not so sure anymore. But whatever you believe on that score, the Gene lets you know that you’re a part of something bigger than your own little life. And for small, worthless creatures like yourselves, that can be profoundly comforting.”
I should write like that more often.
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