Thinking Aloud

Ten o’clock. I just wonder if alcoholism is on a gene. Some professionals say it is. Others deny that it’s a disease. What’s really wacky to consider is how genetics and spiritual darkness and light can be connected. As if one’s spiritual path could be inherited— but with a degree of free will as well. It normally offends my reason to link schizophrenia with spiritual beliefs, because that entails praise and blame. Yet on the flip side of culpability is control, or what I call freedom of choice. Being blameworthy seems undesirable at first, but deeper thought reveals a personal agency or power that is ultimately indispensable. The word “power” also means “to be able.” You can observe the etymology in modern French “pouvoir” and Spanish “poder.” These two languages descended along different lines from each other and from English, but the family resemblance is there. Why would we have a word like “power” if it weren’t a matter of fact? What if our destinies really were in our control? Lutherans say God gave us free will. We can choose right from wrong from moment to moment. But how moral choices could influence genetic heredity, I cannot fathom, unless epigenetic “sins of the fathers” is real.

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