Nature v. Nurture
In college, I had a discussion with a friend who was a Biology major, about the strange biological drive of humans versus other animals.
Squirrels, for example, have a biologically-driven craving for nuts, and their internal programming tells them to spend their days building nests for their young -- because these are the foods and activities that help a squirrel participate in prolonging its own future and that of its entire squirrelly race.
So we wondered, why do humans crave potato chips and hot dogs, and choose to spend a disproportionate amount of time watching television or otherwise slothing around -- when we *know* that these foods and activities work counter to a bright future? Are humans biologically programmed for self-destruction?
During our workout yesterday, I felt certain that at least I must be.
After warm-up drills, our assignment was to make 3 laps of the "Stevie Ray Vaughn loop" (AKA - from the Run-Tex coolers, to the Stevie statue, take a left toward Palmer Auditorium, then a left toward Hooters - don't stop for wings, instead take another left back to the Run-Tex coolers...and repeat 3 times.) In each quarter-leg of these laps, we were to alternate running at 75% capacity, and walking at a resting pace.
And, at every junction between the quarter-legs of my laps, I had to entirely reconvince myself that this activity was something I was going to do -- not because I was hurting or particularly winded, I just didn't want to. At all. I wanted not to so badly that the voice in my mind telling me not to seemed like the voice of reason, like a biological kind of truth that I shouldn't resist.
As I reasoned, or unreasoned, my way through all twelve quater-laps, I chatted with the internal voice that was telling me exercise is bad. Self, I said to myself, you know that exercise is a good thing, just keep going. I made it through the laps by deciding that, as a first-time trainer, it is natural that my body isn't programmed to like exercise.
Since this logic allowed me to complete the task at hand, I should probably have been satisfied and stopped thinking. But, you might have noticed that over-thinking things is one of my favorite past-times.
And here, my spiderweb of overthought gets a little confusing, but I think it's a requirement of all Nature v. Nurture discussions that one's arguments turn inside out on each other. Here I go...
I don't like salad dressing. Nope, not even ranch. It's not that salad dressing tastes bad to me, and I think I could even grow to like it if I tried. But as it stands, I didn't have salad dressing as a kid, so I was trained to like the taste of plain-old, unslathered vegetables. Likewise, I realize, I'm not a first-time trainer in exercise -- I've just been training, and hard, in not exercising, for most of my life.
From this logic, I take two comforting truths: 1- I am already an accomplished trainer (just been training in the wrong activity,) and so facing this challenge need not require assuming a new identity; and 2- It is still possible that my body has a natural drive to exercise. And maybe this is true for lots of us.
I'm going to allow myself not to over-think how this argument might apply to other topics that get discussed in terms of Nature v. Nurture, though I'm sure it's possible to read-in some conclusions. Please understand that any such conclusions are entirely unintended by the author -- my intention is only to search every source to determine how I will run the Trail of Lights and have fun doing it.
Lizzie
