Last month I wrote about the genetical interlink between a child and their grandparents. It is a curiosity that has always fascinated me. Yesterday I read an example of such interlink from the President of the organisation I work for. My boss’ son, Karim Adeyemi broke the record for the fastest footballer in the Bundesliga over the weekend.
While celebrating the feat, the dad wrote on his Facebook account,
“…rocketness is in our gene”
This is a profound lesson in generational blessings. Up till now, many people suppose if it is not inherited wealth, it can not be generational blessing. For people who believe every misfortune is a generational curse, this is amusing.
In 1979, my boss’s father won silver medal in 100 metres race representing the Nigeria Army in Russia. At fourteen, my boss became the fastest runner in his secondary school in Abeokuta. In 2023, his son becomes the fastest player in Germany’s highest football competition. It has always been in the gene!
In one of the numerous informal conversations between us, my boss once relayed how he made the decision for his son to become a professional footballer.
He was an ex-footballer himself who was too old to go pro when he got to Germany in his late twenties. So the first day he was called that his son, Karim ran a record breaking distance on the track in school, he just knew that was it.
As a former best runner in secondary school and ex-footballer, he understood the advantage of natural speed in the sport and thus began Karim’s journey into becoming a professional footballer. My boss was self-aware enough to recognise a familiar generational blessing in his son and upwardly nurtured a prospectful path for him.
A lot of people live their lives believing in generational curses inherited from their grandparents. In some ridiculous cases, these curses are traced to generations that are unrelatable. I do not dispute anyone’s right to believe what suits their faith. As for me, these ‘curses’ are mere genetical wirings to function in certain ways that have proven disadvantageous to generational development.
If so, it is only logical that there are generational blessings- genetical wirings to function in ways that are advantageous to development. Ours is to have the self-awareness to recognise which of these genetical wirings in our children can be nurtured for generational development.
Interestingly, Karim achieved his latest record-breaking feat few weeks after a short visit to his grandfather’s home in Ibadan. The trip was his first time of visiting their place of origin as an adult. If I was a traditionalist, I’d say the spirits of his forefathers were appeased with him.
Yours in Fatherhood,