The long unbroken thread
“There’s an unbroken thread that stretches from those first cells to us.”
-Carl Sagan
We may not be able to trace ourselves as far back as the first cells, but there is some elusive stuff that is passed down through the generations.
More than twenty years ago, one of my professors quoted one of HIS teachers to our class. His teacher used to say, “In our profession, it is not gray matter that is important. What is important is white matter.” He went on to explain that it is not the number of nerve cells in our brain (the gray matter) that is important, it is more important how connected our nerve cells are to each other (white matter). This roughly translated to, “It is not important how many facts you have stored in your brain, it is more important how you can connect those facts to each other.”
It made a lot of sense to me. It made so much sense that I quoted my teacher’s teacher to my students when I had to explain the same concept. At least three generations of students benefitted from that sage advice.
And that is how we consciously or subconsciously transmit a bit of ourselves to the younger generation. As Tumblr user saint-ambrosef says:
“You know how kids tend to subconsciously adopt the mannerisms of their parents? I wonder how far back that stretches.
Do I laugh like my great grandfather, because that’s the way my grandma laughed, and my mom copied her?
Does the way my dad make comedic sounds when he’s driving actually originate with a distant uncle two hundred year ago, who made funny noises in the horse-drawn cart because it made his niece laugh?
I wonder which of my little mannerisms came from ancestors long passed, and I wonder which of mine will echo in family descendants long after I’m gone.”
It is important to remember that while love and wisdom can be transmitted over generations, so can trauma. It is up to us what we choose to leave behind with our actions and our words.
