ANXIETY OF INFLUENCE

I have chosen a title and illustration used by Joel Stein of Time (c)magazine in one of his columns last year. His, readily came to mind as I reflected on my recent trip. I had travelled with my wife to attend a Christian child dedication ceremony for a friend’s newly born. It provided me the chance to personally rejoice with an old friend who had just become a parent for the first time; identifying with his high moment.


As is customary, it was also an opportunity to see who the “bundle of joy” looks like. The pictures from the e-mail showed a baby with phenotypical proximity to his mother. However, on the phone, it was said that everyone says the baby has the looks of the father. I had joked to my friend that I could bet the only semblance the baby would have with him was his gender!

I decided very early (o yeah!) in my marriage that my wife and I will not be one of those couples who engage in “other couples’ gossip “; spending their own quality time together talking about what other couples do that they do. However, I have not been able to stay away from those bragging conversations about whose dominant gene will be transmitted to our progeny. The pride of my envisaged dominance has been over bearing save for only two physical concessions: that the generation after us would neither take my height nor my hair line.

A similar couple war based on who has got greater genes is what Joel Stein narrates in the article of reference. It’s amazing to think that one’s superiority is drawn from how much an offspring inherits from one’s gene pool. Probably this is from the part of our species that wants to live on for ever. What a view on life.

Postscript.
You can read the Joel Stein's article on the following link:  http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1973298,00.html