Generativity...and Then Some

'Fro Boy

Supposedly, as we get older, we start thinking about our personal legacy: what we're going to leave behind for future generations.Being familiar with Erikson's stages of development, I know that generativity is part of what we try to achieve. While not given normally to such deep thoughts, I've decided to ponder at least for a few moments what it is that I would like to leave behind.


After all, Lance Armstrong is going back to international bike racing because (he says) he wants to promote cancer research. I'm sure it's true, and I'm certain the huge hunks o'money he'll be hauling in have nothing to do with his decision though Sheryl Crow and all the other hot girlfriends he's had over the last two years must have had some kind of drain on his ATM. What really spurred me on, however, was Ted Johnson who, along with five other former N.F.L. players and one U.S. women's soccer team player, have decided to donate their brains to science after death.


What a great gesture! Who'd have thought of it? Heart, lungs, corneas, yeah, but brains? It seems that the Boston University School of Medicine wants to study the long-term effects of concussions, and football players and soccer players are noted to have suffered the most incidents of this malady. Post-concussion ailments among those groups are said to include cognitive impairment and depression, both of which seem natural. Discounting the potential effect of steroids, one might find out interesting stuff. Now, we're on the death watch for Johnson, and I wonder if he's creeped out by that. I would be. Anyway, what could I hae that might be possible or desirable for doctors to study?





My head. I'd like to find out why one ear is lower than the other. It's been a pain all my life: my glasses had to be bent all crooked just so I could see straight, and I always had to tilt my head so that my haircut looked even (except when I had the 'fro and it ALL looked uneven).





My right hand. I could never, ever make the Boy Scout sign with my right hand. Seriously, to this day I cannot hold up my index, middle and ring fingers without my pinkie sticking up, too. Not that I really wanted to join the Boy Scouts (Cub Scouts was my limit), but being a basketball official and signalling a 3-point basket was difficult.





My right knee. I would like to know how come that one hurts more than the one which has undergone four operations. It would also be cool to find out if it will ever straighten out...even after I'm dead.





My frontal lobe. This might be the most important one since everyone would like to find out why I made so many stupid decisions in my life when that part responsible for decisions was supposed to mature by my early 20s. I know my wife would definitely like to know the answer to that one. Perhaps my mom just clobbered me too many times for making dumb decisions as a kid. God knows, she could have, and I would have deserved it. Truth is, I don't remember, and it's rather depressing.





I don't think I've ever had a concussion, but given my life's history, it's possible. In reality, it seems that donating sections of my body to medical research wouldn't be all that helpful since the information would be valuable only to me and, well, I'll be dead. If there's another kid out there just like I was, he'll have to struggle through just like I did...but without the 'fro.