Effect

As I get older, I come across random examples of the lasting impact people can have on each other, often with regards to the most seemingly insignificant things.  We all, often unintentionally, leave our marks, sometimes in the most unexpected ways.  I realize that, for many, this is hardly news but I've been ruminating on it lately.

Yesterday morning, when reminded to brush her teeth, Rachel made a special trip upstairs to my bathroom because she likes my toothpaste better.  This is a relatively new development.  For years, I've had to buy her her own toothpaste because she didn't want to use mine.  My toothpaste?  I started using it 20 years ago, having been introduced to it by her father when he and I were dating.  Do you think he had any clue at that point that twenty years later, his own daughter would be using the same brand having arrived at it in this roundabout way?

It goes both ways too.  One of my mother's mainstay dishes when I was growing up was ground beef and gravy.  Imagine spaghetti but with macaroni instead of spaghetti and mushroom gravy instead of tomato sauce.  Easy and yummy.  It's now one of Rachel's favorite meals.  I introduced Rachel's dad to my childhood meal some twenty years ago and now Rachel reports that it's part of her step-mother's repetoire.  Did my mom ever imagine?

Growing up, every Thanksgiving, we made Pumpkin Spice Cake.  I then introduced my co-workers here in Colorado to it.  One of my co-workers, who has since moved out of the area, particularly liked the recipe and adopted it as one of her staples. Who knows where it's going from there.

Rachel likes Popeye's biscuits because of one of my college boyfriends who she's never met.

Steve knows who Kate Bush is because of Jessica, the girl who lived next door to me in college in Leonard Hall at American University.

Not only do we leave lasting marks on those whose lives we pass through but often they pass those effects on to others.  Makes me wonder what other unintended effects I'm carrying around with me.  What other things that are fully integrated into my day to day life are the result of people who have passed through my life and the people who have passed through theirs?

Freaky, man.