On Love and Genes...

I am going to go pretty deep here and if I have to stop and come back to complete this, then that is what I will do. These thoughts are the juxtaposition of a conversation with a dear and sweet friend of mine who is going through a "break-up" coupled with my recent readings on molecular evolution. Essentially, according to molecular biologist, our lives are finite but our genes are forever, passed on in lineage, each gene either through the mother or the father, and from either their mother or father and so on through time immemorial until we all interconnect at our most recent common ancestor which probably dates back some 150,000 years.

As a species we are divided between men and women. Men are determined by the "Y" chromosome and women carry mitochandrial DNA which is essentially the earliest form of life that has been captured inside a gene and passed down through the ages. Mitochandia can be likened to bacteria or even a virus (which has negative connotations but here simply implies that its determined to continue to adapt and survive). So what then is the meaning of life? Well simply put, the meaning of life, in this sense, is for our timeless genes to adapt our finite physical structures to survive and allow the mitochondria to be passed on! Essentially we are just disposable vessels that house genes that continually upgrade the latest vessel to assure their survival. So where does love fit in and where does it come from?

Oddly enough, the human species, the most evolved gene carrying vessel on the planet, is also the one who at infancy is the most helpless life form. Just look at a human baby and you see that without the assistance of its parents to survive, that baby is hopeless and thus the mitochondrial genes will cease to exist, which obviously is against their implied mission statement. In other species, such as the horse, or the camel, when a new gene carrying vessel is produced (ie. when a new born horse or camel arrives), inside of the first hour of its existence, that colt is standing on its own and able to keep up with the herd. It only needs its mothers milk to grow. As such it does not need the male horse or camel hanging around so after the actual sexual act of reproduction, horses and camels do not need to fall in love in order for their species to survive and their genes to be passed on. But humans do!

Up until very recently, and more importantly at the time of our ancestors, when major adaptations in the human species were occurring (they are occuring even now...but during the "great leap forward" of Cro-Magnon man its was hyper-accelerated) human beings were hunter/gatherers. The man would supply food and shelter and the women would care for the young. Without one the other could not survive and without both the species could not survive and as such it would constitute an end to mitochondrial DNA, which as I said earlier, is completely counter to their purpose! So, voila! What is that built in evolutionary survival mechanism, that great adaptation, which was created or evolved to keep that man and that woman together to allow them to raise that most helpless of life forms, the human baby? You guessed it...the evolutionary adaptation called "Love"!

Because we are talking about nothing less then the survival of the species and the continuation of our genes, love is an incredibly powerful force or emotion or adaptation. It is has been as essential to our genetic survival as food and water. When a person is in love and feels threatened that the love will break, he or she can act as irrationally as a starving dog or a man drowing in the ocean fighting for oxygen. We have all seen it, either in ourselves or our partners. So when my friend, the one referenced as the catalyst to this essay, who shall remain nameless, but essentially could be any of us, told me about her problems controlling her emotions as it related to her recent break up, she asked me "am I just a loser?" and of course my answer was the only true possible answer; "a loser, no! You are only human".

Human beings are hard wired to love for their genetic survival. According to my father, a retired nueroscientist at Columbia University, when human beings are in love, their body's secrete certain chemicals and enzymes that create that euphoric feeling we have all sensed at one time or another. While we call this love, it is really, once again, the start of the eveloutionary adaptation of creating a bonding between two humans for the production of offspring and subsequently the passing along of our mitochondrial DNA. And if this ends without actually seeing itself through to its intended objective, the pain is so great because it is the unwinding of a million years of human evolution. That is why it hurts so much when love ends. It is, in essence, a hunger.

But like all adaptations, be it evolutionary or technological or otherwise, these can themselves evolve and be upgraded; like when a new software program comes out with a version 2.0 or better. The greatness of the human species is in its ability to not only adapt to, but in many cases change and overcome, the external or internal stimuli governing our existence. Take for example the Inuit people (they do not like to be called Eskimos) of NorthWest Canada and Alaska. We would assume that given the harsh conditions in which they exist, the instinctual response would be to up and move to warmer climates, like, for example, San Diego. But they have been able to overcome the genetic predisposition of the need for warmth and have adapted to survive, and in many instances thrive, in that frozen tundra. So too have humans evolved the genetic survival mechanism called love.

All dogs are decendants of wolves. But today, after tens of thousands of years of continued evolution, only a few breeds, such as the Huskie or the German Sheppard, maintain similar physical traits. There is little physical similarity to the human eye, between, say, a schitzu or a pug, and a wolf. But genetically they are all almost identical. Such is the nature of evolution in that it not only adapts to change, but also creates variety to enhance probabilities inherent in natural selection. So to are all the forms of love existing in our modern world.

As we moved from the caves, and society and culture, like the members of which they are compromised, have changed, so to has the nature of love. As women have grown more independant and able to survive on their own without a man, we see more and more that the original evolutionary adaptation of love has itself adapted. This can be seen in single parenthood or in caring same sex relationships, or in pornography, promiscuity or "the lifestyle", where sex is enjoyed for sex's sake rather then for its intended evolutionary reproductive survival function. These are all completely legitimate adaptations of love just as a dalmatians spots are a legitimate adaptation of a species which genetically is almost indistinguishable from the wolf.

So, if you fall in love and it does not work out as you might have wished, or how your body's evolutionary chemical changes might have intended, understand that pain is akin to a hunger you might experience for lack of food, geared to aid in your survival, or more to bare, the survival of your mitochondrial DNA. But remember, like the Inuit, you can challenge this pain and overcome it, and there in lies your greatest strength as a human.

Just somebody please remind me of that next time I am all banged up because some chick just did a tap dance on my heart!