Is a family history.
The rest is local circumstance.
Family history provides
What’s called innate inheritance.
You are who your ancestors were,
Give or take a few mutations,
Most of them low impact, accrued
In every new generation.
What your ancestors accomplished
Is a only a poor guide to this—
They had their own circumstances.
But what they were capable of
Probably brackets pretty well
A range for your own behaviors.
Circumstance looms large, however,
Since frankly, human ancestors
Have all been pretty much the same,
The same operating system,
While circumstances have varied,
And will carry on varying,
Widely. Therefore, the distinctions
That matter so much to humans
Are, when visible, visible
Mostly thanks to circumstances.
But step back. Individuals
May vary circumstantially,
But, planetwide, what humans do,
The species’ share of destiny,
Follows family history.
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