genes that skip

It always amazes me how there are certain skills that my parents excel at, that I myself cannot seem to master. Isn't this an example of reverse evolution? If so, how does it explain that my brother or sister picked up on some of these skills, and I did not? Does that mean I am doing something wrong?

My brother is great with his hands, but I am not. So it's obviously not a 100% foolproof genetic inheritance. You see, my father is a custom home builder and has been building homes with his own two hands since I was a kid. You would think that some of his prowess at quality craftsmanship would have rubbed off of me, considering that I've been around his luxury homes for most of my life. However, you would be wrong. I can't seem to do any handy-work around the home and make it really look good. I've got the engineering part down, and I can build things that are functional and work well, but they rarely look nice when I'm done. It's frustrating. At first, I blamed it on a lack of good tools. After all, building something like a bookshelf with a handsaw is more strenuous and time-consuming than using a powered table saw. I've picked up a few power tools over the years, and they have helped me with my "craft" a little, but it's still nothing that I'm exactly proud of.

I think what bothers me the most is that I secretly would love to be one of those survivalist types of people, and I fear that my lack of skill will prevent me from ever attaining a sense of achievement in that arena. But then again, as I mentioned earlier, I do have common structural sense and basic engineering skills. I'm just not very good at making things look good. So I guess I've got the utilitarian aspect of it down - just not the aesthetics. Which is funny, because I was an art major in college. Go figure.