Not everyone can perform all of the classic Snot Bubble stunts. Sure, your basic first grader with the sniffles can pull off the standard carbon dioxide filled mucous coated vesicle, but it takes an experienced fourth or fifth grader to percolate a Double Dandy Dripple Dopper. This is common knowledge. Most of us failed to achieve any noteworthy nostril spume until well into our thirties or forties, and even then it took a glass of milk and a good joke. So what does this tell us regarding the Nature vs. Nurture debate?Obviously, only those born with the particular combination of bronchial/nasal/distasteful genes can discharge expert level SB stunts without even trying, and at an early age. Yet others, not so gifted, can learn to transfuse as well as the nasal prodigy might, if only they inflate their efforts. We are each born with a particular set of genes that dictate not our final level of accomplishment, but merely our potential for ascendancy. It is the nurturing of the inherent traits that actually controls the outcome. The child who spends hours in front of the mirror huffing allergens and puffing muculent, will no doubt be an Olympic contender when the sport is finally recognized sometime in a future century. And in the short term, among his peers (if not his parents), he or she will rise to the top of the social hierarchy.
Ultimately, whether your particular skills were inborn and simply uncovered, or sought after and captured in diligence, is immaterial. The application of your many talents matters more than their genesis. Will you use your vast array of strengths and experience to advance your own well-being? Or will these well honed gifts, whether natural or nurtured, go to enhance the development of society at large?
