Sponges hang out on the ocean floor. All they do is absorb, absorb, unthinkingly and unquestionably absorb the water flowing in and out of their porous bodies. We, as humans, are much more like sponges than we realize. That which we surround ourselves with slowly becomes who we are. In one of the ultimate historical backfires, the German-Jews assimilated so much that they became, well, German.