Pizza: Nature or Nurture? Part 1
This bothers me:
Jim L. and Jim S. were first reunited at age 39. They were genetically identical twins, reared apart since infancy by different adoptive families in Ohio and unaware of each other’s existence. As children, each twin had had a dog named Toy. Each bit his fingernails and, since age 18, had suffered from mixed headache syndrome, a combined tension and migraine headache. Each had been married twice, first to a Linda and then to a Betty. One twin had named his son James Alan, and the other, James Allen. Each had put a circular bench around a tree in his garden. Each had worked at a gas station and later part-time in law enforcement as a sheriff. Each chain-smoked Salems and preferred an occasional Miller Lite beer. Each scattered love notes to his wife around the house. Every summer, unbeknownst to the other, each had driven his family in a light blue Chevrolet from Ohio to the Pas-Grille Beach in St. Petersburg, Florida, for their summer vacation. They had similar voices, hand gestures, and mannerisms. Link to more examples of similarities in identical twins separated at birth
Coincidence? I could accept that. Highly improbable sequences of events happen all the time. But what if it isn’t? And what about the preferences and decisions in my own life? Short of finding my long-lost twin who turns out to be as strange as I am, I’ll have to settle for ignorant bliss. I like what I like and it doesn’t really matter why, does it?
Still, I have been examining lately why I like pizza so much, so very very very much. The first time I considered this, a clear and vivid answer came to me, far more complex than the obvious “pizza tastes good“. In particular, I recalled two pizzas of my youth. There is absolutely no question in my mind that these two pizzas had a profound influence on me at the time. Did my love of pizza develop as result of these experiences or is there a deeper connection with pizza that made these events inevitable?
First there was the Tropical Storm Pizza. And a few years later there was the Blizzard Pizza. I’ll describe each in future blog posts.
I’m intrigued and yet almost scared to read on !