It might have been easier to write about levis, but here it goes.
Sometimes I see mothers with their babies sporting the same face…or a dad and his son who walk alike, long legs, just in two different sizes.
It’s interesting what we inherit, even from the parent we didn’t like so much.
My father suffered from alcoholism, like his father, as we now know, is a passed down disease.
It’s the reason when I find myself drinking more than I should, stop, knowing I too have it coasting through my veins.
I’m asked often, how can you just quit like that?
Strength and resolve I get from that parent I didn’t like so much, my mother.
It was her greatest trait, to keep going no matter what, rising every day at 5 to water her plants and feed the birds she claimed waited for her on the clothesline.
I also get up, regardless of what’s going on in my life, moving forward…unstoppable, the captain of my own ship.
I also got the best of them physically…my mother’s slim build, but dad’s coveted bone structure and curly hair. My mother had a nose like a hawk, I gratefully didn’t get, but her legs, that were her best feature, she liked to say, were another inheritance gracing my gene pool.
I have my father’s big heart, but my mother’s ability to mend the many times it’s been broken.
A little more epoxy please, as I find myself sharing breakfast in the park, with a few birds.
SB
Never forget where you came from. There’s a little good in everyone and you’ve inherited the best. Wonderful thoughts Susannah! ~Elle
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bless them all – our parents – for the legacy they leave us in so many ways. And the rich learning from what we perceive to be their mistakes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
True. Mistakes are like sign posts. It pays to read them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a complex and interesting subject, the whole gamut of heredity. How much effect would thinking you had a gene which you didn’t have? Nature versus nurture: there’s no easy answer. There’s lots of interesting work on mitochondrial DNA that you might like to look at. It’s always passed on from the mother; no (as far as we know) interference from the male side and those nasty sperm things. Opens a whole new bag of worms!
LikeLike
Worms. I think I’ll pass…:)
LikeLiked by 1 person
It might (?) be a long time ago but you have a worm as an ancestor. You should show more respect to your forebears! 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
In that case, I may even take up fishing. Well, it’s a job of theirs, am I right? Kinda like suicide bombers, on a hook.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I doubt it’s a job they would have chosen! I’m guessing there must be some coercion involved?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe there’s a school and they’re promised a dozen virgin worms in the afterlife.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Religious worms?!! I know they’re not the brightest creatures but they’re not that stupid.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Do you have data to back that up sir?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes. There is a well documented negative correlation between intelligence and religiousness.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I see. worming my way, making a note.
LikeLike
PS LOL
LikeLiked by 1 person
Susannah, I recently returned from visiting with my father (almost 90 and going strong) at his winter home down in Florida. I just loved it when everyone said how it didn’t take a genius to figure out that I was his daughter. All of us girls got his tall slim build. On the other hand I also got his big English horse teeth!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I happen to like your teeth. You have a smile Skinny that could melt a glacier…:)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Are the teeth of English horses different to the rest of the world? Just wondering. 😉
LikeLike
Will do some research and get back to you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My dad had the genes of an Ox as far as his health was concerned. Nothing brought this man down except his ego, which thank goodness I did not get. I did get the mad survival skills of my mother, along with her perseverance. I would LOVE to have her olive skin, however that went to 2 other siblings who couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag if they were lost. Give and take. (But that skin!!!!)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m laughing. My mother had olive skin too. Must be an Italian thing I didn’t inherit. Got the pale, watch the sun, sunscreen for life, Polish skin my father had. Oh well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahaha! I have the Casper, burn to a crisp, pimple prone German skin of my father.
LikeLiked by 1 person
OOH…where’s that beach umbrella the size of Kansas…:)
LikeLike
It’s funny which genes you get. Some you want and some you wish you had. I am eternally grateful I have my Dad’s thin build but he was hairy. Would have liked my mother’s hairless legs and arms but her build was more stocky. Both had chestnut hair but one brother and I came out blondish while the other brother came out with even darker chestnut hair than they had. Personalities are all over the place with none of the three of us alike. Rogues genes from ancestors past peaking through.
LikeLike
It’s fascinating, isn’t it? Both my parents loved cats and dogs. Another legacy.
LikeLiked by 1 person