May
21, 2018
Greetings from
the thread,
It
has been estimated that there have been 108 billion people living on our planet
since our beginning, including those of us still here. One hundred billion people, scattered around
the globe, making the most of what life they were offered, and then passing it
on and on until the most recent seven billion stepped in.
Among
all of this enormity is a tiny thread, vibrant and tenacious and yet so small
you might never know about it unless you met me. I exist in this thread, and so do all of
those related to me, both in history and in time to come.
Not
long ago my daughter gave me a home DNA testing kit. I was curious about it but I didn’t really
understand how much I would know once I got the results. I figured I knew enough about my ancestry
that it would be interesting but probably not earth shattering.
What
has been fascinating is to see my thread stretch back into time, caroming
around the globe. Some of my line moved
from Africa across Europe to flourish in Britain, and another through Asia to
become our Native Americans where my grandparents twisted the two strands
together.
I
hadn’t considered my DNA would show where my Scottish family came from; that just
a few hundred years ago my thread wove through Scandinavia, Spain, while on the
other side of the globe the Chippewa were unknowingly charting the future for
their share of the line.
My
report tells me the history of my DNA for nearly 20,000 years. Generation after generation, getting up,
making coffee, getting the kids ready, going to get food, cleaning up,
laughing, telling stories, making love, taking naps, mourning, hoping, starting
over. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
of children growing up and repeating the process and making their way across
the world and through time until this morning.
I
make coffee and read about them and wonder about their stories and feel a
connection that is a little unsettling and encouraging at the same time. There is a mystery and there is a literal
kinship, that links us. This tiny,
vibrant, tenacious thread that has survived everything that the world throws at
people since the beginning of time.
And
here I learn that 23andMe knows of over 1000 people who share my thread. If I want to connect with them, all I have to
do is click a button. I find this a
little intimidating, for reasons I can’t quite voice I have resisted taking
that step. That will be for another
morning.
I
know this process may seem a little frivolous to some, but if you trust the
science, and I do, it is fascinating to see what it has revealed. I am interested in some of the details but
for now I am content to see the beauty of the whole landscape. The more I look at it, the more I see and the
more amazed I am.
Earlier
this week I got up to run and went outside to taste the temperature before I
laced up. The sky was clear, and the
stars fought for attention in the arc above me.
I stood there long enough to get chilled and stared at the brilliant
unknowable multitude of lights. As with
every other time, I am amazed at the number of them, and knowing some of their
light is so old that it has been traveling for thousands and thousands of years
to reach me.
When
I stare at the cosmos I realize two things at once. First the enormity of creation, and how
insignificant I am. And second, that among
all of these stars, on this lone blue marble, cast among 107 billion other
specks of sand, how significant I am.
Hope
this finds you looking both ways,
David
Copyright
© 2018 David Smith
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