Will Glen Ropella be the next Henrietta Lacks? I was reluctant to offer my DNA to the giant commercial-profiteering-cloud-in-the-sky and only did so as a mild act of "bravery", just as I do when I leave my wifi open and doors unlocked and keys in my vehicle. The big difference.
I'm always interested in other's *honest* mystical experiences/maunderings (in this case DaveW), not because I am seeking mystical answers to questions, but rather because I find something compelling about the mythopoetic wordview which mysticism seems to be a part of. On 10/17/21 3:46 PM, ⛧ glen wrote: > Dude. Have you written this up? You know I tend toward disdain in the > mystical. But I'd love to read your story. > > Re: SteveS' question, I will never submit my dna to such a service. But my > adoptive sister did; and thereby found her bio-mom and bio-sisters. She > always cared about that, whereas I could not care less. But I am happy for > her, because she is very happy about finding them. > > I did sign over the rights to take, keep, and use my dna for cancer therapy. > So, maybe, 6 to one, half a dozen to the other. > > > On October 17, 2021 10:06:54 AM PDT, Prof David West <profw...@fastmail.fm> > wrote: >> Haven't done the DNA test, but did inherit an extensive genealogy simply >> because that is what Mormons do. Nothing particularly notable (the brother >> of William the Conqueror was an ancestor, the owner of most of the track >> across Nevada — Ogden to Reno — was a relative). I visited most of the >> villages in Netherlands, Western Germany, and the castle in England where >> ancestors once lived, but none of the ones in Ireland. >> >> The villages in Holland and Germany, at the time my ancestors lived there, >> were centers of radical / mystical Christian sects; maybe my mystical bent >> was genetically inherited? >> >> davew >> >> >> On Sun, Oct 17, 2021, at 10:21 AM, Steve Smith wrote: >>> Barry wrote: >>>> The author Isabel Wilkerson wrote two books which I’ve read in the >>>> last year or two. The second one was “Caste, The Origins of our >>>> Discontents.” In it, she looks at castes in three countries: India, >>>> the US, and Germany. She notes the extent to which the Nazis, once >>>> they had control of the government and needed to write laws supporting >>>> their scourges, followed the template of the American south. At one >>>> point, on the matter of who was to be considered a Jew, they looked at >>>> the American definition of a negro as one having “a single African >>>> American anywhere in your family tree”. For the Nazis that was a >>>> bridge too far, so they stopped looking past the grandparents. The >>>> American criterion was more than they thought they could sell to the >>>> German people. >>>> >>>> The other book she wrote, “The Warmth of Other Suns” is a history of >>>> the Great Migration, the flight of six million from the south to the >>>> north in the US, was a real eye-opener for me. I had never understood >>>> how brutal Jim Crow was. >>> I took the plunge a few years ago for one of the ancestry DNA tests and >>> was shocked but not surprised. In spite of the family >>> stories/folk-geneology tracing my roots back to mostly germany/poland >>> with a schosch of Scottish, the DNA test claimed 95% Scandinavian and 5% >>> North African. Mary took the same test and got results much more >>> aligned with her family story (Irish/English/Welsh). Her father who >>> could pass for native (heavily tanned from outdoor work, very dark >>> hair/eyes) wanted to claim Native Ancestry but couldn't place it in a >>> family tree (generations in Nebraska). Mary's test came back as >>> "clean" as Elizabeth Warren's. >>> >>> My mother passed recently and with her passing I received a 3 drawer >>> file-cabinet of the working papers she had from when she was tracing her >>> geneology a few years ago. While her mother emigrated from Germany as >>> a child around 1900 with a full Polish mother, and full German father, >>> her father's nameline (Graham) went back to pre-revolutionary days *IN* >>> Kentucky, my great great great therefore being a contemporary of Daniel >>> Boone I suppose. That line mingled with that of a Scottish sea captain >>> about 1800. >>> >>> The 95% Scandinavian isn't inconceivable from any portion of northern >>> Europe. The 5% north African was an interesting surprise. The maps >>> they offer up of "North Africa" leaves room for a wide range of ethnic >>> origens with anything from Nubian to Arab to Moor to Berber to >>> Harrarian. I don't know that it relieves my ancestors of having >>> included slaveholding. My parents were both quite proud (for >>> Kentuckians) of being "damn Yankees" which might have been an element of >>> "protest too much"? I don't know there is anything legitimate for me >>> to feel proud or embarrassed about in my presumed 5% (less than a >>> quantum?) but I felt both in passing. My parents both considered >>> themselves proud "mutts". >>> >>> A different genetic-marker database (different company, etc.) might well >>> have given me different results. I don't think these things are as >>> bogus as astrology or palm reading, but I suspect that in spite of their >>> scientific roots, they are more about vanity or confirmation bias than >>> anything. Throwing my DNA against a few different database walls and >>> seeing what sticks might provide some parallax, but I'm not sure I care >>> really. >>> >>> While I grew up thinking my parents were very progressive about >>> racial/ethnic issues, by the time my sister was dating in earnest, they >>> tried to call her off her first boyfriend whose family were Mexican (we >>> lived on the border and his great grandparents had been born en-situ >>> *before* the area shifted from MX to US) and a later one whose father >>> was African American and (deceased) mother was Phillipina. While they >>> were gentle about it, I was shocked at the hypocrisy. By the time my >>> father was retired, he was listening to Rush Limbaugh and my mother >>> voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and probably 2020. I'm sure they voted >>> (near) straight-ticket Republican most of their lives. My sister and >>> her husband lived/worked in Spain and Chile through their 50s and ended >>> up not much less biased. Go figure. >>> >>> Anyone else do the genetic heritage testing thing? We know Sarbajit's >>> status. Who can claim a quantum of Native American, Neanderthal or >>> Ghengis Khan? Who cares? >>> .-- .- -. - / .- -.-. - .. --- -. ..--.. / -.-. --- -. .--- ..- --. .- - . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn UTC-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
