To be more precise, your Mind is a cowboy – and it is riding a million year-old horse called DNA, in the Rodeo of life (or for many of us a little older, the Cattle-Drive of life). We’re not talking about a “one-trick pony”, but we’re not talking about leaping through rings-of-fire either.

Your DNA is a means of transportation. Your DNA is a body of information. To a huge degree, you are a passenger, riding on that history of information for the entire time you will dwell on this earth. You may wish to steer, or direct it, but it is much larger than you alone – your DNA is an accumulation of habits that kept your entire bloodline alive. DNA is a powerful beast – it drives leaders, and it drives armies, and it is set in its ways – also, for most of our existence as Humans, it has killed the weak.

Your DNA is unique, but is comes down to you from a host of ancestors, all of whom were living, breathing, and real people. And unless you had an ancestor of virgin-birth, your line goes back, alongside my own, for millions of years. Our shared DNA even goes back to before we were humans, but let’s just narrow it down to the last few million years for now, because we are searching for relevance.

All of us who are organ donors, are aware that our interior parts are interchangeable. Age, skin color, gender, and personality are not issues that the doctor deals with if he is distributing a kidney to a person in need. We even know that the body can keep functioning, in all phases, when injured patients are induced into a coma. The brain can die, and the body can be kept alive – as if waiting.

But your Body is NOT waiting. It too, is trying to stay alive.

If you have had children, your DNA is happy, it has “moved-on”.  From that point on, no matter what bizarre things you might be willing to put your own “physical casing” through, your DNA is unconcerned – Your DNA has become Long-term.

Your Mind is short-term (in the grand scheme of things), and your body is short-term – but with the ability to reproduce itself, the parts, through DNA, have become Long-term.

Whether your mind is 20, 30, 50, or 60 years-old like my own, it remains puny against the ancient biological machinery that drives… and is your body. It is your Mind that over time, learns to adapt to the limitations of the body – not the other way around.

Before we can think, our hands will instantly block our faces from blows. We blink before dust enters our eyes. We hear when we are asleep – some people can even walk in their sleep. Our physical-beings are ancient, and they can function quite well, even without us paying attention. Otherwise our hearts would stop when our attention shifted to the TV.

The “horse” our Mind rides – and I say Mind rather than Brain because our self-awareness, even though centered in the brain, seems to have its own, separate view of the world (although the view brought in through eyes that trace their evolution back through much, much  earlier predecessors).

We each think we are brand-new. A shinier, faster, and better version of our father or mother. And our Minds might be. Our bodies however, will continue to live in the past. And in particular, that is where our digestive systems live.

Feed them what you will, they will do what they do. Your gut bacteria comes from your parents, probably more mother than father since you were in her womb – eating her food. But understand that your parent’s bacteria came from their parents, back, and back, and back. Back before most of the “so called” necessities we fill our lives with were invented – especially since almost every invention you can name happened within the last few thousand years – including foods like wheat. If you think your Digestive tract has evolved more than mine, I suggest you consult a doctor – and take your name off of the Donor list.

Studies now prove that the Brain communicates directly with the stomach, and most of the time, the stomach leads the conversation. Your stomach, and how it reacts to the food you feed it – can rule your world. It can keep you in bed, or it can keep you poised over the toilet, and it can make you psychotic – No matter WHAT your Mind may have convinced you about the food before you put in in your mouth.

And whereas a real horse is a vegetarian, and has the digestive system of a million year-old vegetarian – Your “horse” does not. The real horse, however, does not try to eat meat. His mind does not lead him there. The Human mind is different, and it loves to experiment and explore. A Human infant will stick almost anything in its mouth. A Human adult has even more choices – hopefully, including what NOT to eat.

A Human can decide not to eat meat, without consulting its million year-old gut. A Mind can decide that it does not want to kill anything for food. And, I can understand a Mind coming to that conclusion, but I hope the Human attached to that Mind understands that their gut is not that malleable, it does not operate on mental whim. No matter what your Mind may want – DNA sets the operating parameters.

A Human who wishes to be a vegetarian will wither have to graze full-time, or take supplements – Lots and lots of supplements.

I’m OK with that, just don’t expect your body to follow the whim without a fight. None of your ancestors have EVER had the option to go vegetarian, because none of them have the technology to produce, and then buy back the protein they would be missing in their diet. They would have died mid-way through their first winter.

Your DNA is not vegetarian, nor is the “horse” that your Brain rides – the horse that your Brain “rides” happens to be an omnivorous, protein chasing, hunter-gatherer. And for some, the ride is an intense 7 second whirl-wind – for others it’s a slow meander along with the “herd”.

The Mind that inhabits your Brain, thinks it can eat anything, – lots of things fit down our throat, and taste good – it just doesn’t have the biological mechanism to digest it properly. The digestive part is left to a million year-old system that doesn’t care what you think. That’s the problem.

Sometimes, there are places I’d like the “horse” to take me. Sometimes the horse, however, has his own path. When we are both going the same direction, it’s a wonderful ride.