The Orchid: A Sensitive Beauty

Everyone has something about themselves that others feel justified in labeling as undesirable, weak, ugly, bad. What's worse is that some of those labels and all the negativity they bring are given with the attitude that they are irreversible, final, even destiny. Fortunately, age has allowed me to better understand and even accept myself for what has been deemed my most prominent deficiency: s e n s i t i v i t y.

Now, I know that in the role of nun or social worker or actress, sensitivity may be perceived as a useful and even required positive trait. But I did not grow up around particularly religious, political, or artistic people; so "sensitive" was definitely a put-down.

This is why I am happy to have read an article entitled The Science of Success. It describes new research on genes and human behavior that has begun to present a theory of nature via nurture in a way that has never been explored before. My ideas about my own personal history seem to support this new direction toward a place where "sensitive orchids" are not only necessary to the evolution of our species but valuable and wonderful when they are exposed to the right environment.

From the article in The Atlantic:
Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of blooming spectacularly if given greenhouse care. So holds a provocative new theory of genetics, which asserts that the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species, causing behaviors that are self-destructive and antisocial, also underlie humankind’s phenomenal adaptability and evolutionary success. With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail—but with the right environment and good parenting, they can grow up to be society’s most creative, successful, and happy people.

In my role as a parent, the implications of this new research and the opportunity it brings to affect a change in the attitude about "orchids" is very exciting. Whereas my childhood was filled with sad attempts to overcome the trait, in my parenthood I may exploit it, in myself and in my children should they have it.