Origins

As my supportive hockey playoff beard grows and grows, I find myself thinking about how it is I got into the Boston Bruins and the other sports teams I like.

Sometimes we forget why it is we enjoy the various things that we do; why we have the habits we have and the tendencies as well. It may be that you just never think of how it started, or you've forgotten, or in some cases it simply just is.

For me, family has always been a major influence in life. I think that's true of a lot of people, but I know for sure it is for me. The music I like now I have come to like on my own, or through friends or just attending local shows. However, in my earlier years, it was the music playing in the living room that I held close. Bands that have stuck with me over the years like Blue Rodeo, Meat Loaf, The Beatles, etc. were all bands either of my parents played or had in their collection. At first, of course, it was only the music playing that I heard, but as I got older, my curiousity had me sampling them to see what was interesting. There are boxes of records at my cottage that I spent countless rainy days (and some sunny ones too) going through to try out. That in a long and indirect way led to the record a week portion of this blog.

Then there are the sports teams. I guess a lot of people end up supporting the teams that are local to them. And I guess I might be a bad person for not rooting for the local team in the two sports I care most about. The Boston Bruins and the New England Patriots are the two teams I am a diehard fan of. Both of them I got from my cousin Russ, who I looked up to a lot as a kid. For the record, he also likes the Leafs, so is not as anti-patriotic as I apparently am.

Phrases and quirks are obviously picked up from the people you spend time with and blended together with aspects of your own personality or other things you've picked up over time. I have over the years noticed starting to say words or sayings that people I am spending a lot of time with use frequently. As an adult, though, I have started to notice some stuff I had considered my own weird quirks are perhaps passed down generationally. Even in looking in old photos I will se one of my parents standing in a way I always stand or making a gesture that I never remember them making, but certainly am aware of doing myself.

The old battle of nature vs. nurture is eternal and in my mind, there is no doubt that the origins of everything you do come from a little bit of both.