"Wow, that is an intimidating family scene for someone with my background.

I come from a family that is very pretty.

My mother is beautiful, and though she is intelligent, never had to develop her intelligence because things came a little more easily to her - she had no need to form personality skills (though she can flirt like the best of them). She was the youngest, therefore coddled. She never really learned to take care of herself. She lacks abilities like argument, discussion, perspective, analysis, self-reliance etc. She's kinda flighty. I am sad to say that I, too, have deficiencies in some of these areas, though I am considerably more self sufficient, being an only child during formative years. I will give her this: her heart is in the right place, I think her reasons for doing/saying things, however much I don't agree, are well meant and honestly given.

I come from an emotional family, rather than logical. My father's family has a flair for the dramatic; all are outgoing, well spoken, charismatic people who could "sell sand to the arabs". Lawyers, radio, actors, writers, poets, singers, crafties etc. It's from them I inherited my love of language. That is most definitely nature. Well, having said that, my mother has always had certain pet peeves, which have been passed to me (nurture) like when people say "I could care less" or pronounce vulnerable "vunnerable" and library "liberry".

Anyway, my mother was single till I was 6, and she married a contractor/construction guy. There were no political conversations at our table. There were no anti-war discussions. There were no current state of the world chit chats. The extent of foreign policy was my stepfather bitching about chinese drivers. (my brother has picked up this nasty habit, and I think he knows better). He didn't talk about much at all, that I can remember.

I think if anything, any social consciousness I have is my own, senses I've acquired through my life.

I was born with an intense sense of compassion. I have the ability to sympathise and empathise almost to a fault. My emotions are not half assed, ever. I'm a sort of super-human-emotion-machine. I can't step on bugs without feeling weird about it. It doesn't always win, (prime example - not vegetarian, for long). So as a result, I generally am for the underdog, the ones who get the short end of the stick. I'm all about fairness, equality, justice. What's deserved and what's not, though who can really be the judge of that? I kinda think I have a natural sense of what's right and wrong that seems to be in harmony with most. I can't bear death, I can't bear senseless violence, I can't bear creatures hurting, human or otherwise. But I lack the go-getter-ness and the know-how and drive to actually make a difference myself. That's where I fall short, and my embarrassment kicks in. I tend to be the "why march? nobody listens or gives a shit anyway, it's not going to stop any war, it's not about us anymore anyway" ilk. But I can see the drivers behind such things.

Does that make any sense at all? I guess my whole point is, I'm uninvolved on the surface, but wholly involved in the heart... "

Lame, eh?