Nature, nurture and choice

People often argue the difference between nature and nurture as if one or the other is the cause for how somebody becomes what they are.  When you look at people through the centuries - the bad and the good - I think something else needs to be taken into consideration and that is choice.

Whether somebody has been bought up to behave a certain way, if their nature is different to how they are nurtured, somehow it will break through in the end.  I could never figure out what was different about me and I finally came to the conclusion that it wasn’t just my nature (that made me make unpopular decisions) or the nurturing that would have led me down a different path.

CHOICE.  Time and again there are choices we have to make.  And they can be good, bad or indifferent, influenced by either nature or nurture or some mix of the two.  I believe this is really what forms the basis for how somebody becomes what they are.

Fact is, I was just watching a CBBC programme about fairies and witches.  One fairy had been brought up in the usual world, loved and supported by the earth parents who treated her well, separated from her twin brother who was brought up by an evil father.

So their nature was the same, but their nurturing was completely opposite.  Neither of them always made  what would be seen to be the right choice, but what it came down to was that both of them had choices they made and THAT was what made the difference.

TREASURE

Nature or nurture could be argued forever, but at the end of the day, it’s the choices that somebody makes that creates the difference.