Coming to terms with false ideas about heredity
In my lifetime science is discovering so much
New information to process and incorporate
More than I can absorb in one reading.
Ancestry claims are basically absurd
Since if anyone today is related to someone ancient
Then everyone is also related to that progenitor
As I read the absolutely logical explanation.
Genes get diced and spliced around randomly
When eggs and sperm are formed there’s no certainty
My specific self in posterity likely disappears
Several generations hence leaving no trace.
My identity contains DNA and mitochondria
And trillions of microbes that I depend on
And all the mosaic of mutations over time
And all the ways the environment has shaped me.
My inheritance comes from our human culture
That has shaped the world we live in
All the labor of our ancestors who built up everything
Teaching us everything to begin with.
Our heritage is not all good
Eugenics remains as an undercurrent
In a time when racist ideology fuels racist acts
As if there is any pure nationality.
My daughter asks me about what I am learning
She who reminds me of her fondest memories
How I would brush her hair every day before school
A kind of intangible inheritance from childhood.
She is inheriting a world of trouble
Pollution poisoning earth, air and water
Climate change severe storms and droughts
Endless wars and widespread suffering.She tells me she sometimes contemplates my mortality
How sad she will be when I am gone
So we make plans to get together more often
Enjoying what we have while we can.
