So Different, So Alike

Why do we do the things we do? How do our idiosyncrasies make us each different, unique in the way we think and reason?

Some things must be learned behaviors from watching parents or other adults as we grow. But how do we explain twins, separated at birth, who grow up miles, even countries, apart and yet have the same behavior patterns and mannerisms? How much is actually from our DNA?

The diversity of humans amazes met. Yet, how much we are the same.

I see, as many women do as we mature, so very much of my mother in me. My sister-in-law reminds me of my mother-in-law who in turn is similar to her mother. What makes this so? Even our best efforts fail to overcome those habits we see in ourselves that remind us of our parents. Mannerisms: the turn of a head or a gesture, so like a parent even as we strive to be different.

Sons like fathers, daughters like mothers. So different, so alike. The very things about our parents that drive us crazy, even infuriate us, and push us out of the nest to be on our own, we begin to see in ourselves more and more.

As young parents, we look at our babies searching for us in them. Why? When we don't want to be like our parents, why do we expect our children to be like us?