Shakesthegrounds Rumblings

[Lumière]

We all need a good reality check every now and then Shakes! 
Sending hugs to ya ..{} {} {} {} {} {} 

~M

[moremojo]

Yesterday I went to the funeral of a 86 year old lady who had been the sister of my aunt and a friend of my mother's.

I'm assuming then she was the sister of your aunt by marriage?

I told me cousin who is a wiccan,  if she comes to my funeral, not to hide her pentagram in her dress. We both laughed then, from our own seperate closets.

I'm telling anyone showing up to my funeral that formal dress is optional. I have always hated wearing ties, and would never wish to subject anyone else to that sartorial burden on my account.

[Shakesthecoffecan]

I am with you Scott, I gave up ties when I turned 41 and have not worn one since. "Casual Dress" should be the rule in my send off.

Yes, the deceased was the sister of the wife of my father's brother. What relation would that be? Kissin' cousin I believe.

[moremojo]

Kissin' cousin I believe.

Cousin, to be sure. All terrestrial life is genetically related, so that even the trees and blades of grass are our distant cousins (a science teacher in high school once explained that simply being able to digest an organism suggests genetic and chemical similarities to that organism).

I read once, in a 1978 book by Guy Murchie, that the furthest one human being could be related to any other human being on the planet was about fiftieth cousin, give or take a few degrees, and that most of us are a lot closer, regardless of appearance, culture, or creed.

[Shakesthecoffecan]

I have heard about the 50th cousin thing too, in my little town I am related distantly to just about everyone. As a realtor I also have to disclose any familial relationship involved in a contract. I have actually had to write contracts where I stated that everyone involved was related to one another.

[moremojo]

I have actually had to write contracts where I stated that everyone involved was related to one another.

I can be a royal pain in the posterior to my family sometimes, when I remind them, upon some casual remark along the lines that the Lites were only kin to the Youngs by marriage, that EVERYONE on earth is biological kin, making the Lites and Youngs cousins (specific degree of consanguinity presently uncertain).

We really are one human family, with our similarities much stronger than our differences. This thought could instill a feeling of shared purpose across the nations, which is one reason that I think Murchie was so keen to stress it (apart from the fact that is simply a matter of scientific record).

[Shakesthecoffecan]

I was on this genealogy list once that was discussing the Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemmings liason. It was mostly people yelling at each other pro or con what they believed about the genetic tests that basically proved one branch of her descendants shared dna with the Jefferson family.

I pointed out to them that no one was arguing about weather or not John Wayles, Jefferson's father in law, was also the father of Sally Hemmings. No one cared what he did, they were only worried about the third president of the US.

Indeed, everyone we see everyday, we share dna with, share ancestry with, even if it were just a breif encounter long ago. If people could just learn to think that way.

[moremojo]

Indeed, everyone we see everyday, we share dna with, share ancestry with, even if it were just a breif encounter long ago. If people could just learn to think that way.

Truman, I remember another argument that Murchie made involving how likely we all were to share some pretty major ancestors in our mutual family tree. He wrote that the further you go back in time, the more likely you are to be descended from someone of that time who procreated. Thus, not only is the overwhelming majority of humanity descended from Abraham (assuming his historicity), we are all also very probably the direct scions of Confucius, of Muhammad, and of Zarathushtra, to name just a few. We are the seed of scoundrels like Marc Antony and of saints like Augustine, the heirs of both princes and paupers. And again, it doesn't matter what you look like, what language you speak, what religion you profess or how you vote.

[wulfar360]

i try not to get to far into my family   first couzins is bout as far as i go cause  its confusing

[Shakesthecoffecan]

Yeah Wulf and Scott, I try to treat everyone like I would want to be treated, but sometimes all I see is a person I would like to grab and shake and ask them why the hell they are doing such and such. Like Sandra Bernhardt.