Yesterday was a big day. I collected my saliva sample for my Ancestry.com DNA test to figure out where I am from. After lunch, I brushed my teeth and set a timer for thirty minutes during which I would not eat, drink or chew gum, which is hard for me to do after lunch. I usually sip on a cup of tea after lunch and chew gum. I didn't want my results to come back "German, Swedish, Jewish, Italian, and Peppermint."
I mailed my sample off today. Now I wait for six to eight weeks.
I had a friend whose father was into genealogy. She warned me I might discover things I'd rather not know, and I can see that. "I could have lived my whole life not knowing I was related to an advisor to a fascist."
There was an interesting clause when I went online to register my spit. They asked if I wanted to be part of their research study. They didn't say what they were studying, just that they would be looking at DNA and historical trends. I decided to say no. They could have legitimate areas of research, but I didn't know if they were trying to prove some crazy nonsense about ethnicity or race, like "Everyone who descended from King George III is a genius. Everyone who didn't isn't and should be purged."
This blog is about the little and big thoughts that pop into my head. I once read that when Flannery O'Connor walked into a bookstore, she would want to edit her published works with a red pen. In the digital world, we have the luxury of tweaking things up after we've hit the publish button. I can be a perfectionist/procrastinator, where waiting for the ideal means little gets done. Here I will share what is not--and likely will never be--perfect.
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