Have you ever noticed that people look like their dogs? Some folks are yappy and high strung. Others are mellow and always ready for a belly rub. Somehow temperament gets imprinted on physiognomy. Perpetual worriers look like a Shar Pei with furrowed brow and woeful countenance. Glad-handers resemble Collies with an ever joyful glad-to-see-you expression on their faces. Maybe people adopt animals that have personalities aligned with their own. But my theory is that we come to resemble the significant others in our relationships. Whatever (or whomever) claims our day-in-day-out time and attention puts an impression on our lives. So wives look like their husbands and vice versa.
Today’s news gave some confirmation for this theory. A study tracking 33,000 married couples in Japan and the Netherlands found that decades of living together tended to sync the bio-markers for both partners. Men and women in long term relationships tended to have similar BMI’s. They shared physical traits like high or low blood pressure and triglyceride levels, as well as psychological characteristics such as tendency toward depression or the opposite. It’s not surprising. “For better or worse, for richer or poor, in sickness and in health” are transformative vows, not empty verbiage. Through an alchemy of time and constantly rubbing shoulders, coping with both the joys and inevitable irritations of living in tandem, the two truly do become one flesh.
Ponder this: you are what you love. The object that commands your daily sacrifice and devotion may be the stock market, the next election, your work, your family or community. Regardless, that reality will be your Creator and put its stamp upon your body, mind and heart. Love wisely therefore, and be careful what you wish for. You may eventually come to look like your dog, or mirror the thing that you most desire.
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