Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity is sometimes summarized in a formula, E=mc squared, which means that energy is measured by mass multiplied by the square of the speed of light. I hope you got that the first time, because I won’t repeat it.
When the movie mogul Sam Goldwyn met Einstein, he said, “You have your theory of relativity, Doctor, and I have mine. Mine is, never lend money to a relative.”
As a kid in Central Texas I grew up with Einstein-like folk wisdom. Elderly ladies in town would tell me, as a kid, that if parents trained their children in the way they should go, when they are old they won’t depart from it.
This seemed to mean that they hoped my parents were training me right. They never said. But these same elderly ladies would also tell me, when a kid had gone wrong, that “the apple never falls far from the tree.”
Later I realized that there was something wrong. Parents training their children infallibly emphasized the role of nurture, while apples not falling far from trees stressed the role of nature. So which is it—environment or genes—that determines how kids turn out? I’d like to ask these elderly Texas ladies, but now they’re all dead, and so I can’t.
Scientific formulas are presumably never wrong. But folk wisdom formulas often are wrong, and even contradict themselves. If only life were as certain as "e equals mc squared," we’d be a lot happier, alas. Is that too much to ask?
I’m Tom McBride, and that’s my Perspective.
