Beyond Genes

Rubber band. An unprepossessing thing you find at home which you used to take for granted. Bakit nga naman hindi? Isn't this the one you blew with your hands when you were playing dampa as a kid, the one vendors use to tie together pechay or malunggay bundles in the market? For some reason, though, you couldn't get this thing off your mind now after a professor in one of your post graduate classes used this object to metaphorize humanity - the potentials and limitations of the human species. "Our genes dictate what kind of rubbers we are in terms of size, aesthetics, etc.", she says. Nature has pre-determined our physical composition, our thought and emotional processes, our capabilities. In short, Nature has pre-defined to what extent we can be stretched; biology has spoken as to what we can or cannot do.

There is goodness in this natural decision, so you realize. Yes, there are things you are limited to do because of genetics, but by the same token, there are things that you are naturally gifted to do as well. "Stretch those rubber bands," you recall your prof saying. And stretch you will do, via constant training, exposure and practice - lest your rubber wrinkles, shrinks or even decays. You've been inspired by handicapped people who are able to do amazing things despite their handicap - people without legs who do gymnastics, fly a plane, or run in the Olympics. Indeed, what makes a person great is not by his unused innate talents or natural abilities, but by how one is able to overcome one's natural inabilities, defying the odds, creating a beautiful and inspiring story that is sweet testament to the indomitable human spirit.