It was only a Bit my fault!

I am the product of Generations of my Ancestors and each has passed on their contribution to me through inherited characteristics.

The situations now influencing our present consciousness (which is me) are handled through intuition, by my fears, hopes, worries and ambitions, but these are all influenced by the ancestral contribution.

I can not claim all the credit for my success, nor am I totally to blame for all my failures.

The 'tares and the wheat (Matt.13 v24-30) may indicate this is an old idea which hails from a noble stable. Of course apart from ones self, immediate parents would have the greatest influence but the degree to which any one ancestor influences me must depend on how many others of the family (past and present) endorsed each characteristic as it developed in the family over time.

If you think ancestral influence is marginal consider for a moment the similarities and differences which are revealed within the typical living family. Family traits are accepted as normal while family differences stand as oddities.

I can remember as a young man the experience of real, but uncharacteristic, tears when I realised that I was not in complete control of the personality that is me.

"Why do I know and plan with determination the way I want to go, but in the event go in the opposite direction before I realise, too late, that I have made the same 'mistake' again".

Since those early frustrating experiences I have come to make some allowances for the being that bares both the family name and its character, but which I am privileged to drive for three score years and then some.

Learning to add to the family characteristics in a way that harmonises with all we have learned before. Is not that what its all about? The creation of a harmony of differences? And does that not also come from the same stable?

Society is much more complex than it appears!

Roy Miller.