I was recently talking with a friend about the importance in a name and was reminded how long we agonized over the name for our son. We weighed all the factors, like my creative tastes against my husband’s traditional tastes, finding a name that sounds like a strong first name since our last name is also a first name, and picking a name that he won’t get teased about! We went through hundreds—thousands!—of names. I even found a website that shared the possible pitfalls in a name, especially in elementary school. Still on the eve of my c-section, we still hadn’t decided.
Naming a child is probably the first big decision we make for him. Nevertheless, I am a firm believer that it’s the person who makes the name, not the other way around. There are many more important decisions we make for Lance every day that will determine who he is.
One of the most basic philosophical arguments regarding human behavior is the question—is nature or nurture what impacts us the most? In other words, do we blame our faults on genetics or do we blame our parents for raising us that way? Regarding a weight problem, do my genetics make me struggle with it or is it the way I have learned to eat? I’ve heard people blame everything, from their genes to the name their parents gave them.
I don’t know if there is an exact answer if a person is looking for percentages. “39% of what I do is from my genes, while 25% is from my parents’ teaching and 36% is from the habits I’ve formed as an adult.” It just doesn’t seem that simple. Most of that debate is untouchable—I have no control over my genes or how I was raised. But life is made up of choices, and those choices I do have control over. Choices are what give me the chance to change what life has dealt to me, and I prefer thinking about something I have power to change.
Nature vs. Nurture -- that is the big question debated for many years. We were asked to write about it in Jr Hi (I think it was) and then later I wrote a paper on the subject in college.
ReplyDeleteWhile I can't claim to have more insight on it than the intellectual minds who have gone before me, I have come to the conclusion that they both work greatly in making us who we are. And yes, choices we make is the third component the philosophers so often overlook. That is probably the biggest factor of all!