In this post Theory Corner considers the question of nature versus nurture. Are we shaped by genetics or by culture and experience? I don't know the answer but I can relate a story I heard that might be helpful.
It begins with twins born in a peaceful little cottage, nestled in the hills.
Both girls were cute as a button and nice to a fault. They attended Church regularly and did well in school.
On weekends they cooked brownies together. Everything went fine until one day....
...puberty struck.
Gladiola hardly noticed. She just drank a glass of milk and went on with her life.
Mildred, on the other hand, developed a disdain for milk and discovered that she preferred other drinks. Her parents didn't know what to do.
Under the influence of raging hormones Mildred became less and less interested in brownies.
One day she up and ran off to New York. She just packed up and left, without so much as a note left behind.
She never made it, though. The car she was in crashed and she was taken in by hillbillies.
Fortunately for her, the man who found her was the King of the Hillbillies. He treated her like mountain royalty but unfortunately he was fatally kicked by a mule and Mildred found herself on her own.
Without a way to make a living Mildred drifted from relationship to relationship.
Finally she made it to New York but she had no money and no friends there. Life was hard.
Years passed. One day her Dad was browsing the lurid paperback stand in his local pharmacy and he found a book about, of all things, his daughter. That's when the family finally learned what happened to her. Later a friend of hers mailed them Mildred's pasties. That's all they had to remember her by.
So that's the story. Gladiola continued to drink milk and prospered. I guess I haven't resolved the nature vs. nurture question. Maybe no one ever will. If there's a lesson to be learned here it might be about the generative power of milk...life giving, eternally delicious...milk.
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BTW: Thanks to the anonymous person who who grafted the two women together on the title card.
