Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny (ORP)

This answers a question nobody asked. But who cares. When I was in the 9th grade I did a paper titled "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny". I don't remember what I scored on it. I do remember that my teacher came to my house to discuss it with me (or my folks, I can't remember now - this was 43 years ago) because he had no idea what I was talking about. (Obviously, if he had actually read my paper, he would KNOW - idiot!). Sorry, I digress. Scientifically, this phrase has to do with the evolution of a species and there are different theories about all that. Loosely and generally speaking however, these three words are a real convoluted, high-falutin' way to say "history repeats itself".

Everybody in the world over the age of ten knows this to be a fact, but will fail to acknoweldge it and live with it in their everyday lives. For instance, the world is always changing. The earth heats up, then freezes up, then warms up again - and all this happened long before man arrived on the scene, and will continue long after he is gone. Now when the last ice age ended, did they blame the dinosuars for passing too much gas and damaging the ozone layer? Nope. Not to my knowledge. And guess what, the ice age is still ending and slowly turning into meltdown age. Has been all along now. It's just getting warm and unstable enough now that man is becoming alarmed. Ohhhh. We're alarmed. This is going to happen whether we're here or not. I'm not saying that we aren't helping it along a little. I'm just saying that it isn't within our power to stop it. Ya know, the universe doesn't really revolve around us. Okay, enough on global warming.

We can also use our ORP theory with almost everything else cyclical. Fashions repeat themselves - usually with a little twist. I was a teenager in the sixties and wore bell bottoms and hip huggers and mini skirts. Gee, if I wasn't so old now, I could just pull them out of my closet and fit right in. Now that's a visual you don't need to ponder. Look at all the "retro" out there now in cars, trucks, diners, clothes, home decor, etc. Women are again heading more for the Boticelli look that has been "in" several times during history. Even music is recycled.

This is just the tip of the iceberg (no pun intended). Stop and start thinking of all the things that have passed before and that are occuring again. It's astounding. Makes you kind of think that there is no more originality. Over the short term and over the long term and in it's loosest translation, ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. The parent to the child, the world over again.

Now THAT was certainly worth more than 2 cents. You heard it here first.