The Gap Between Us: A Reflection on Inheritance, Identity, and Imperfect Design
The Gap Between Us — A Reflection on Inheritance, Identity, and Imperfect Design* When I look at a child born with a noticeable gap between their front teeth—a diastema—I don’t just see a dental anomaly. I see a living example of how nature mixes and matches the building blocks of two people, sometimes with beautiful imperfection. This child might have inherited a wide jaw from one parent and small teeth from the other. Neither parent may have had the gap themselves, but in the hands of genetics, the combination paints a new picture. That’s one of the first lessons we learn from cases like these: traits don’t blend like paint—they combine like puzzle pieces, often in ways we can’t predict. ...