Mental Grab Bag

I had a wonderful discussion weeks ago with a friend at school during one of those obscenely late night porch conversations that have become a hallmark of my college career. During this particular exchange, we dealt with the nature v. nurture debate in regards to homosexuality- namely whether you are born with your sexual orientation (her position), whether it develops over time (my position) or whether it is a choice- a stance we both strongly disagreed with. My experiences would lead me to believe that only the most conservative- and ignorant- segment of our population would take such a dogmatic position. Our debate boiled down to this: I was unwilling to agree that there was something in our genetic makeup that predetermined our sexual orientation (something one must concede if he/she takes the position that you are born gay or straight) and she was unwilling to agree that something happens to make a person homosexual.

Ever since this discussion I have been trying to think of a better way to approach the topic, and a few days ago I came up with something I was satisfied with- an analogy. (In case I haven’t already demonstrated an overwhelming penchant for using them at this point, I should explain that I always use analogies- some reasonable and others comically incoherent.) For this subject, I used the analogy of taste buds. I don’t like lettuce. Most people do, I don’t. I never chose to dislike lettuce- eating reasonably healthy is made considerably more difficult without this friendly green vegetable at your disposal- but that’s life. At the same time, I don’t believe that I was born destined to dislike lettuce either. In 100 years, I don’t think scientists will be able to look at a blood sample of mine and determine that I had some gene which caused my distinct dislike for lettuce. I brought this up with my mental sparring partner the other night and she still disagreed, but for now I am comfortable with the explanation (or lack thereof) and wanted to write it down before I forgot about it. I am sure volumes of research results are available that cover this exact topic (the origins of homosexuality, not my distaste for lettuce) but neither me nor my friend have been willing to put forth the necessary effort to comb through any of it. Certainly psychologists (professional ones as opposed to amateur enthusiasts like me and my friend) would be better equipped to offer a more fact-based explanation. But I like mine.



Some other thoughts:

-My dad is moving out of the office he’s practiced law out of for at least a decade to relocate to another space down the hall. For the most part, it is an entirely unspectacular process- he has known for a long time and has been steadily organizing the war zone that was his desk and the surrounding area for the move tomorrow. Why I am thrilled about it: there are five attorneys in this office including my father, and over the years I have come to dislike one of them in particular. He is a crusty old man dripping with arrogance and nothing pleases me more than the thought of never having to deal with him again. I don’t mean to sound so negative- he is by all means a fantastic lawyer (and onetime local mayor)- but I have rarely encountered individuals as cold and unfriendly as him before, and I hope to keep it that way.

-A trio of journalists from the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) are in the office this morning to interview my dad on the Conrad Black trial currently taking place in Chicago. Two comments on this- first, that every time I hear “CBC” used I think of the “CDC” (Center for Disease Control) as though there were an outbreak of the Ebola Virus in our building. Second, Canadian accents are severely underrated. You hear people poke fun at the Canadian accent from time to time, every other syllable being that infamous long “A” or soft “O”, but it really it is a lovely accent. Subtle, I’ll admit, but something I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to this morning.

-My friend Nate made a post on his blog [http://sodiumtelluride.blogspot.com] the other day about how our group of high school friends seems to be drifting apart, and I would like to respond to that with a lengthy post of my own at some point. At the moment, though, I don’t think I know exactly how to go about explaining my thoughts on the matter. Look for that sometime in the relatively near future.