Inheritance And Transmission
By DONALD DeMARCO The notions of inheritance and transmission are, in a certain sense, opposites. Inheritance, such as our biological endowment, comes to us naturally and without any effort on our part. But what we inherit is undeveloped. The great lessons of history that we would like to transmit to the next generation represent highly developed accomplishments. Nonetheless, benefiting from them requires a great deal of personal effort. The incompleteness of inheritance was sharply expressed by novelist John Updike when he remarked: “The dwelling places of Europe have an air of inheritance, or cumulative possession — a hive occupied by generations of bees.” We want to be more than bees living in a hive; we want to be fully developed…Continue Reading