An Interesting Question

The Shoe Search

               As you all know I only work part time now, and have done so for several years.  Because I always have Monday as a day off, and for a couple of other reasons I have been driving one of my grandsons to school on Mondays.  I did so this morning, October 30^th 2010.  While waiting for him to get ready I usually check my email and diddle.  An unusual thing happened this morning while I was diddling; I heard him call, “Mom.  I can’t find my shoes”.  It struck me while hearing this plaintive cry for help that it has been some time since I last heard him have this problem.  I don’t know how long it has been since he couldn’t find his shoes last, but I am certain the interval has increased.  I can remember, I think, a time when almost every morning he could not find his shoes.  In fact, sad as it may seem, I was often amused by the perennial shoe search.

               It has caused me to wonder whether ‘being able to find your shoes’ has some sort of biological cause, i.e., perhaps there is an enabling ‘shoe search’ DNA sequence which clocks on at a particular moment in your growth, so that from that moment on and forever afterward you will be able to find your shoes. 

We all know that puberty causes some dramatic changes in boys and girls.  It is quite evident to me that, if there is an enabling ‘shoe search’ DNA sequence, it must click on later for girls than it does for boys.  It is not completely unusual for this boy’s Mom to have to do a shoe search, although most of the time her search is quite short.  This might also explain why women have so many pairs of shoes in their closets, i.e., if you can’t find one pair you can always put on another.  I’m sure you’ll all remember Imelda Marcos in this regard.  My ‘shoe search’ DNA sequence has been on for many years.  I can always find my shoes, because I know exactly where every pair has been placed.  His older brother seems now to be able to find his shoes every morning.  Once in a blue moon my wife has to do a shoe search, but not as often as does my daughter.

So my conclusion from this small sample of the population is that the enabling ‘shoe search’ DNA sequence kicks on somewhere between 17 and 21 for boys.  It must be approximately the same for girls, but must not always make a complete connection.