by Dr. David, Editor / Publisher

A lot of things we thought were proof of evolution are not. The species of fish in lake A, which is slightly different in fin, gill and jaw from its cousin species of fish in lake B, is not, as evolution teaches, a result of populations, once in common, but since in isolation, developing independently along different paths. It's still the exact same fish.

If you take a fish from lake A and subject it to the same conditions that exist in lake B (for example, giving it a different water temperature, oxygen level or food source) within a couple of generations it will develop the fins, gills and jaw of the fish in lake B. It has those latent genes, silently waiting to be called on, ready to express themselves when the environment favors their expression.

The doctrine of evolution says that these changes took place over tens or hundreds of thousands of years. Now we know that they happen in the very short span of a few generations of fish.

Another sacred cow of evolution is that the process is one way and random, without feedback or guidance. That is, genes express the character of the individual, but the real-life experiences of the parents do not affect the genes passed along to their offspring.

Now we know that this is not so. Now we study these effects in the very scientific field of epigenetics. Rats whose pregnant mother lived in a stressful environment are born more aggressive. If your grandmother went through a famine, you have a different way of metabolizing your food.

This reminds me of the very old story of the king who was upset that his queen bore a child with a skin tone much darker than either of theirs. A wiseman examined the royal bedchamber and exonerated the queen of any charge of infidelity, blaming the discrepancy on a portrait of an African man hanging aside of the bed. (Although the skin tone of the wiseman is not recorded.)

What you look at, focus on, meditate upon, changes who you are. As Vonnegut puts it in his novel Mother Night, "You'd better be careful who you pretend to be, because that's who you are." And who you pretend to be also changes who your children are.

For most of my life I have been too sensitive. It's not that I get my feelings hurt. It's that I pay too much attention. I notice everything. If the radio is on in the next room, or there is a conversation at the next table, I cannot help but listen.

The imperfections in my fluency in Spanish, still allow me to ignore these audio distractions when they come my way in Spanish. Sure, I might catch a phrase here and there: the loudspeaker of a passing snack truck, "Llegaron, llegaron los cacauates" (The peanuts have arrived), or ice cream truck, "Siempre imitado, pero nunca iqualado" (Always imitated, but never equaled), or the "old metal" truck, generously offering to buy my old coins as scrap. I had to come to Mexico to learn what it is to be undistracted... or relatively so.

I've written about my calming down, taking things easier, following my small "nervous" breakdown late last year. As with the human heart, the problem wasn't that I was working so hard (although I was), it was that I wasn't resting between the beats.

My father was also very alert, but he was more selective, more laid back. My daughter S has her own version of this familial trait. She gets very passionate about certain convictions.

With covid and not being vaccinated, until this past April, I hadn't seen S in years. The ten days I spent visiting her in New Orleans were wonderful. Through the lens of our relationship, I could see how I had changed. Indeed, I was less high-strung, less morbidly anticipatory, more come-what-may.

Evolution or devolution is a family affair. We affect our children, not only when they are small, before they are born or while they are still under our immediate parental care. I believe that my recent evolution, my calming down, allows my now-adult daughter more freedom. It may be wishful thinking but, I believe that I can make significant amends now for my short-comings as a father back then.

Our attitudes affect and are affected by the attitudes of those around us. Our genes turn on and off in relation to our surrounding environment. Space is curved. Time is not the relentless line forward that the geeky scientists insist upon. The world is not so stupidly simple as Darwinists imagine. The more we learn, the more miraculous nature seems. Sometimes you do get a second chance, and even a third.

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