Why should you bother with it?
(About Purposes and Ideals.)
(About Purposes and Ideals.)
–
Here we are, creatively
adapting to the consequences of a new technology, one of the multitude that
have emerged in our time, all of which are virtually certain to generate
unintended consequences and effects. Those unexpected effects can be
positive or negative, and it's up to us to take an active and conscious role in shaping
the way they impact society, rather than passively letting them be shaped
by forces that are to no one's real benefit.
At this time in human history, things are moving and changing faster than at any time in the past. And the faster things move, the more they tend to fly apart. All the positive elements in our cultures that have held us together in social groups are under tremendous stress, and many have frayed and been torn to pieces, especially during the twentieth century. We are all too familiar with the consequences in human suffering.
Many of the social forms that once worked well can't be expected to bear the weight of our times, as they've become rigid constraints ill-suited to the new needs of an era that demands that we learn to live productively, without mutual destruction, with many groups of people whose cultures, ideas and approach to life are very different from our own.
Yet in no way can humans live without values, without shared ideas and without elements that unite us. Ultimately, there is no life or existence out of the context and matrix of the whole, and people only find misery and despair when their way of life doesn't reflect that.
From the physical, to the emotional, mental and spiritual dimensions of our being, all can thrive only in a state of connectedness with others. Yet many of us find this more difficult to achieve in our current circumstances than it should be. Many forces today are acting to keep us apart, and some of the most dangerous are those that try to convince us we don't need others, but are better off on our own, looking after our own interests.
More than ever before, I believe people today are in danger of falling into an attitude of extreme selfishness and individualism, which intensifies the negative trends in society.
Because of this, I feel it's incumbent on us to struggle against the forces of entropy, that pull us apart into coldness and lifeless separation, by continually heeding the inspirations that help us respond to the time by inventing new ways to remind people of our underlying, essential connectedness and ultimate interdependence. In this way we help foster a way of life that benefits all, rather than seeking the advance of a few at the expense of the rest.
It's my conviction that if we do this, we follow the guidance of the great spiritual leaders of humanity, who have given rise to all our varied religious traditions, that guidance which is a common element in their teachings, the prerequisite for the realization of the highest ideals to which they call humanity.
So, why pursue the history of a genetic haplogroup? Do I hope to find something special about ours? No, it's simply that given the conditions of our time, I feel it's urgent to find the most creative, positive way of working with every opportunity that presents itself to develop new means of remembering and honoring our fundamental connectedness, as children of the same Source.
Here, then, is what genetic genealogy can do to uplift humanity.
In the past, families had the ability to trace their lineages only so far back. Even the most extraordinary case I've heard of (a Chinese clan's records) goes back 172 generations, no further. That is a tremendous achievement for any family, yet it pales in comparison to the generations revealed through our DNA. And of course, the vast majority of families lose track of their line in less than a tenth of the time recorded by that clan.
The problem: once our primordial sense of oneness and kinship with the rest of life was lost, people's relatively short known lines of descent appeared to have separate origins. Our families seemed to be many and unconnected.
Now, however, a new power has been given to us: by using DNA testing, we are able trace our lineages so far back that we can see how they all ultimately join -- see their common arising. We are now discovering the common Ancestors we all share.
When each family appeared to be separate, it was easy to see the others as basically rivals for resources, whose trustworthiness was always contingent on shared language, religion, acceptance of cultural mores. Families could intermarry, but usually formed alliances only within those boundaries, the boundaries which would distinguish 'Us' from those 'Others' who could not be trusted: the Enemy. All too often, even the trust fortified by those means has evaporated, and bloodshed ensued.
The awareness dawning today that no family is separate, that each family on earth is literally united in one common tree of descent, is an important step toward a shift in this mentality.
The image of a garden is one I want to hold up for us to consider as well. Specifically, a flower garden. A number of models have offered competing views of human biodiversity. Some of them have unashamedly promoted one variety of human -- that of their authors -- as superior to the rest, possessing the corresponding right and duty to rule and dominate other human groups.
We can see a parallel to that racist ideology in the form of farming called monoculture. Only one crop is grown, to the exclusion of all others. The genes of the seed are meticulously manipulated to produce great uniformity. The genetic pool becomes so narrowly limited that these crops are highly vulnerable to any unexpected fluctuation in weather or new advent of disease. The insects and organisms that naturally live on this plant variety are attracted in great numbers, and reproduce massively, given the huge food source. The agroecosystem becomes tremendously imbalanced and precarious, a disaster in our food system waiting to happen.
The alternative is in diversified farming systems that work in harmony with the way nature works. Instead of putting all the grower's eggs into one basket, many crops and animals are raised, which have mutually beneficial interactions and rhythms.
This model is also found in miniature in most of our home gardens, especially flower gardens. Few of us wish to see a display of one single variety of flower, the way the monoculture farmer creates uniform fields of corn or soybeans. That would be so boring to look at in our gardens. Instead, many of us find delight in seeking out the greatest possible variety of different, perhaps rare or newly discovered plants, to grace our flower garden, so that it provides a continually changing mosaic of color and beauty.
This is the model I propose that we embrace in regard to the human race. In the variety of human biodiversity we can find its beauty. Like the flowers, we are an incredibly rich outpouring from a common root in the Earth's fertile abundance. There would be no beauty in uniformity, but only in the concert of all the colorful varieties together.
Since I asked the members of this haplogroup to choose a name for us, I've received a good number of responses, with one overwhelming favorite: Iris. For that reason alone it would have to prevail, as I could hardly resist the will of the people; but I was further inspired when I considered that the name Iris gives us the perfect symbol to go with this 'flower garden' model.
Iris, besides being a lovely flower that can be found in myriad shapes and hues, was the Goddess of the Rainbow. What better symbol could we find for a view of our human family that excludes none and celebrates us all, in our myriad forms and colors.
At this time in human history, things are moving and changing faster than at any time in the past. And the faster things move, the more they tend to fly apart. All the positive elements in our cultures that have held us together in social groups are under tremendous stress, and many have frayed and been torn to pieces, especially during the twentieth century. We are all too familiar with the consequences in human suffering.
Many of the social forms that once worked well can't be expected to bear the weight of our times, as they've become rigid constraints ill-suited to the new needs of an era that demands that we learn to live productively, without mutual destruction, with many groups of people whose cultures, ideas and approach to life are very different from our own.
Yet in no way can humans live without values, without shared ideas and without elements that unite us. Ultimately, there is no life or existence out of the context and matrix of the whole, and people only find misery and despair when their way of life doesn't reflect that.
From the physical, to the emotional, mental and spiritual dimensions of our being, all can thrive only in a state of connectedness with others. Yet many of us find this more difficult to achieve in our current circumstances than it should be. Many forces today are acting to keep us apart, and some of the most dangerous are those that try to convince us we don't need others, but are better off on our own, looking after our own interests.
More than ever before, I believe people today are in danger of falling into an attitude of extreme selfishness and individualism, which intensifies the negative trends in society.
Because of this, I feel it's incumbent on us to struggle against the forces of entropy, that pull us apart into coldness and lifeless separation, by continually heeding the inspirations that help us respond to the time by inventing new ways to remind people of our underlying, essential connectedness and ultimate interdependence. In this way we help foster a way of life that benefits all, rather than seeking the advance of a few at the expense of the rest.
It's my conviction that if we do this, we follow the guidance of the great spiritual leaders of humanity, who have given rise to all our varied religious traditions, that guidance which is a common element in their teachings, the prerequisite for the realization of the highest ideals to which they call humanity.
–
So, why pursue the history of a genetic haplogroup? Do I hope to find something special about ours? No, it's simply that given the conditions of our time, I feel it's urgent to find the most creative, positive way of working with every opportunity that presents itself to develop new means of remembering and honoring our fundamental connectedness, as children of the same Source.
Here, then, is what genetic genealogy can do to uplift humanity.
In the past, families had the ability to trace their lineages only so far back. Even the most extraordinary case I've heard of (a Chinese clan's records) goes back 172 generations, no further. That is a tremendous achievement for any family, yet it pales in comparison to the generations revealed through our DNA. And of course, the vast majority of families lose track of their line in less than a tenth of the time recorded by that clan.
The problem: once our primordial sense of oneness and kinship with the rest of life was lost, people's relatively short known lines of descent appeared to have separate origins. Our families seemed to be many and unconnected.
Now, however, a new power has been given to us: by using DNA testing, we are able trace our lineages so far back that we can see how they all ultimately join -- see their common arising. We are now discovering the common Ancestors we all share.
When each family appeared to be separate, it was easy to see the others as basically rivals for resources, whose trustworthiness was always contingent on shared language, religion, acceptance of cultural mores. Families could intermarry, but usually formed alliances only within those boundaries, the boundaries which would distinguish 'Us' from those 'Others' who could not be trusted: the Enemy. All too often, even the trust fortified by those means has evaporated, and bloodshed ensued.
The awareness dawning today that no family is separate, that each family on earth is literally united in one common tree of descent, is an important step toward a shift in this mentality.
–
The image of a garden is one I want to hold up for us to consider as well. Specifically, a flower garden. A number of models have offered competing views of human biodiversity. Some of them have unashamedly promoted one variety of human -- that of their authors -- as superior to the rest, possessing the corresponding right and duty to rule and dominate other human groups.
We can see a parallel to that racist ideology in the form of farming called monoculture. Only one crop is grown, to the exclusion of all others. The genes of the seed are meticulously manipulated to produce great uniformity. The genetic pool becomes so narrowly limited that these crops are highly vulnerable to any unexpected fluctuation in weather or new advent of disease. The insects and organisms that naturally live on this plant variety are attracted in great numbers, and reproduce massively, given the huge food source. The agroecosystem becomes tremendously imbalanced and precarious, a disaster in our food system waiting to happen.
The alternative is in diversified farming systems that work in harmony with the way nature works. Instead of putting all the grower's eggs into one basket, many crops and animals are raised, which have mutually beneficial interactions and rhythms.
This model is also found in miniature in most of our home gardens, especially flower gardens. Few of us wish to see a display of one single variety of flower, the way the monoculture farmer creates uniform fields of corn or soybeans. That would be so boring to look at in our gardens. Instead, many of us find delight in seeking out the greatest possible variety of different, perhaps rare or newly discovered plants, to grace our flower garden, so that it provides a continually changing mosaic of color and beauty.
This is the model I propose that we embrace in regard to the human race. In the variety of human biodiversity we can find its beauty. Like the flowers, we are an incredibly rich outpouring from a common root in the Earth's fertile abundance. There would be no beauty in uniformity, but only in the concert of all the colorful varieties together.
Since I asked the members of this haplogroup to choose a name for us, I've received a good number of responses, with one overwhelming favorite: Iris. For that reason alone it would have to prevail, as I could hardly resist the will of the people; but I was further inspired when I considered that the name Iris gives us the perfect symbol to go with this 'flower garden' model.
Iris, besides being a lovely flower that can be found in myriad shapes and hues, was the Goddess of the Rainbow. What better symbol could we find for a view of our human family that excludes none and celebrates us all, in our myriad forms and colors.
Viva Iris!
–
For many more of these Iris photos, see:
Photos of Iris flowers from the Historic Iris Preservation Society
Photos of Iris flowers from the Historic Iris Preservation Society