Today I am grateful for conversations.
We went out to dinner last night with a lovely group of people. There were lots of extremely interesting conversations. We talked about our lives. We talked about epigenetics. We talked about the political system. We talked about cycling. We talked about how to make things better in our world. I found the conversations interesting, stimulating, and challenging.
According to Wikepedia Epigenetics is
the study, in the field of genetics, of cellular and physiological phenotypic trait variations that are caused by external or environmental factors that switch genes on and off and affect how cells read genes instead of being caused by changes in the DNA sequence.
I find this subject so interesting. The possibility that we can turn certain information on our genetic material on and off opens a whole new world of management of health and illness. For example the possibility that obesity can be manipulated will also influence the susceptibility to other diseases such as diabetes. “Obesity increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and a host of other problems, but we know little about the mechanisms by which obesity increases such risk. Genes only explain part of the story”, says study leader Professor Nilesh Samani, British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiology at the University of Leicester, UK. Epigenetic changes caused by variation in DNA or environmental factors such as diet, stress, and exposure to chemicals can affect the way genes work (are turned on and off) and may also influence disease susceptibility.”*
One of the other conversations was about the state of our country. One of our friends gave the example of Singapore managing their economy extremely well. I googled this subject and found an extremely good article explaining why Singapore is so successful. One of the quotes I really like from this article is ” Singapore’s success is due to Meritocracy, Pragmatism and Honesty”. I have always thought that we could improve the strength of our community by building connections, improving the fabric of families and working on ourselves. The conversation last night gave me other things to think about. Maybe economics also has a huge part to play in improving the strength of our community. Maybe if we improve our economic system and put more value on work rather than welfare, rewarding excellence rather than mediocrity and had zero tolerance for dishonesty things like domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse and suicide rates would become less.
In between these intense subjects we talked about our families and how to help our children lead happy successful lives. We also talked about our love of cycling.
It was a wonderful night of friendship , fine food and wine and stimulating conversation. I am very grateful to be privileged enough to be able to have these amazing experiences.
Excellent and thought provoking. Thank you.