Thanks Ed Riemann

Ed ...

You pushed me over the edge with your touching comments of 1/28/97. Specifically:

"Seems to me that as I age I have noticed a sometimes annoying habit of quoting my father and uncles and what appears in part an increasing dependence on an historical perspective. Do you think that as we age there is mroe of a release of genetic heritage that effects our thinking and perspective?"

I cannot pretend to know; at this point I must believe that all things are possible. Let's share some memories and get some more examples.

My fear is that some type of statistical event may underlie the phenomenon. 1) I'm selecting only information that agrees with me. 2) I may be somehow "leading the witness" 3) Maybe out of a finite number of traits, all of them are represented within a couple of generations. 4) So forth ...

I would be far more content if I had a good "mechanism" for what appears to be occurring. The concept of "psychological adaptation" is highly appealing but is defined as "universal" to all of us. If we can have psychological adaptations that are universal for groups of people, but highly variable for individuals, then I may have some leverage.

Again, thanks for the boost.

• Native American Indian Quote by Ed Riemann, 3/16/97