My genealogy dangles like the proverbial carrot before the horse or the horse before the cart because if I find the people responsible, I'll have the burden to inform who comes after. Woe is me. Why can't I be more like my dogs?
He, she, she and she are oblivious to lineage. Its' not important and that's a lesson I must learn. "Who I am is not defined by the circumstances of my birth", she said in a text. The "she" being my friend, Siobhan Peal - the Shaman of Stonehenge. I have been in dialogue with her twice, seeking advice. I thought knowing the biological facts of my parents and their extended relatives would bring a new perspective and put to bed the notion that genetics are responsible for well-all my unraveling plans.
Surely, I must be related to other people who just can't finish what they start. Procrastination must be an inherent trait.
According to Ms. Peal, "No".
Well, she should know.
I started, again, on the who am I quest and enrolled in a college course given by a member of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. They have the corner on genealogical record keeping. They're serious! The files are kept in a vault within a granite mountain in Salt Lake City. The online program and the web of research will help anyone arrive at their definitive roots. Some roots are shallow, however, and mine is of that variety. I was able to trace fourth great grandparents on my father's side and not quite so far on the maternal line. The information was all very organized and it was more a process of elimination once I recalled the vagueness of names I remembered in conversations with Mom and Dad.
The opportunity to further research remains for those more dedicated than me. I'm done.
Next step? Maybe DNA. That would give me a geography lesson. One can never have too few of those. Borders change, people migrate and inbreed. Record keeping might lapse from written to oral and back again, but the story could be highly entertaining. Would the new information enlighten or entertain me?
That last question is the thought behind the delay in this probe. How seriously do I need to know?
Do I want to know? Am I prepared for the consequences of knowing?
Um...
Back to my dogs; their lives are not complex. Routine eliminates worrying about options.
As long as they are living with me, their needs will be met promptly. Happy dogs equal happy
me. I believe that they want for nothing. We are symbiotic and they are insightful, intelligent
and compassionate beings. Their breeding is for another's benefit. Their lineage makes YOU feel superior. They don't give a crap about it.
I abhor the word "pedigree". It's among a long list of limiting, self-disparaging adjectives. To describe any being in the terms of being "less than" because of an ancestral genetic mutation...
I don't understand the rules which define you and me and them as inferior from ourselves and each other. I appreciate the theory of natural selection and survival of the fittest. I get that. Was there a king and queen of the apes in that original troupe somewhere in our evolution? Was the crown then past up through the roughly thought out timeline of say fifteen million years ago to present day? Apparently so, and the resulting monarchies are a testament to the inbreeding and migration patterns resulting in the several kingdoms still intact today.
As for me, I'm without my breeding certificate. I was adopted. I may never know. The state of Washington doesn't acknowledge pre-adoption birth records. I've tried.
To balance the scales, I know that my soul traveled 444.2 light-years to get here. That's a long time to consider who my relations are. The earth is hardly my place of origin. Science is on my side. The Earth is 4.54 plus or minus 0.05 billion years old.
I am who I am-relatively speaking.
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