Mulk

Last night I wanted a glass of water. I went to the fridge. I opened the door. I got some water. I poured it into my glass. I drank the water. A little while later, my toddler wanted some water. He went to the fridge. He pouted. He held the handle. He looked at me. He said, 'Mulk!' (his term for any drinkable liquid). I took his queues and poured him some mulk.

Life often gives you tools. It gave me legs, a refrigerator, water, and a glass. Maybe you have these things, too! It's really great when you put these tools together! Sometimes, however, your tools are a little more cryptic and the instructions are unclear. Oh! So I have 20% Native American in my results but my Y-DNA haplogroup is R (European) and I have 5 matches, all with Arabic names! Well this is a fun puzzle! In this situation, you should preferably start with a beer.

Genetic genealogy, just like literally everything ever, will not tell you the meaning of life. It is a tool. You have to use that tool to make some mulk. If you get your results and sit on them until...forever...well you're probably not reading this blog in the first place. You do get what you put in, to a degree. That's not to say you get your money back. That's unfortunately the one thing you don't get back. However, the array of knowledge now available to you is larger than you might think. Even if you have no matches. Even if your matches don't write back.

Though it can be potentially scary to uncover your biological past, there's nothing really you can do wrong when navigating or acting upon your results (except maybe writing vulgar emails to your Matches. That would be wrong). On a related topic, Roberta Estes' recent blog post about how to contact your matches is fantastic (http://dna-explained.com/2016/01/20/saying-hello-in-the-dna-world/). Write your matches. Even if they are distant or even if you don't really care. Distant matches can provide great information. Engage in projects. Unsurprisingly, Roberta also has a great recent blog post on projects (http://dna-explained.com/2016/01/25/how-to-join-a-dna-project/). I feel that maybe my posts should just be links to Roberta's blog.

Nothing will be answered for you. Think of your DNA results as a family reunion you didn't realize you were having. There's people you like there. There's people you don't. If you sit at a table by yourself with your Diet Coke and don't talk to anyone, why are you here? I get it. The free T-shirt. If you engage in conversation, however, you might find out that  your uncle fought in WWII and saved a village in France and now has a town there named after him. Similarly, contacting a match might reveal that you share a common ancestor in France in the 19th century. What if your uncle saved his own ancestor's descendants? Wouldn't that be nuts?

Within your results are other tools you may not even realize exist. Go get a glass of water from the fridge and explore.

Everyone's Connected

Jacob wakes up in his housepod floating above the ground that has become a conglomeration of 3 major cities that have since merged due to overpopulation and urban sprawl. He's tired because his baby has been up all night and the robo maid has been malfunctioning, failing to feed him. Also, her hover thrusts are in disrepair and she's been getting an attitude since you refused to pay for her therapy because, 'Spending money on a robot's 'feelings' is like using a lighter to start a fire.' He's hungry, so he verbally tells the toaster, from his own bed, to turn on and cook his breakfast. He then dives into his virtual reality workplace simulator.

300,000 years earlier, Oook wakes up in grass. Well, it's more of a bed, but it's really grass, in the shape of his bed. He's tired because he's been up all night because he sleeps on grass. He's hungry because the recent snow has made hunting difficult and no plants have been growing, except cave grass. He walks outside, spends about 45 minutes starting a fire using sticks and twigs, grunts, and walks across the vast plain in search of anything resembling a living creature.

You wake up today. You wake up early. You wake up extra early. You wake up this early because your baby boy wakes you up by screaming. Your fight-or-flight response, unbeknowst to you, may be a direct result of early humanity, kicks in and you run to his room. The house is a mess, and you think it's due to a payment issue with the maid. She's been asking for a raise. You really want to make toast, but the toaster is just too far away. Maybe it's just you, but you really wish there were an easier way to get toast. Maybe you'll invent something someday. Instead, you lay in bed hungry and log in to your laptop to start work.

No other vocation, occupation, or hobby is as dynamic and interconnected as genealogy, or genetic genealogy. We're all part of the same experience. I know you've heard that before, but it's absolutely true. Nobody on earth is disconnected from this. Every action you take or experience you encounter is a result, or at least reflection, of all of your family members that came before you.

There is no reason to take a genetic genealogy test if you don't want to explore more. This field requires you to interact not only with information you are given, but with new relatives you never knew you had.

Only by sharing each others' experiences and history can we not only understand that we do all share some commonalities (especially among your matches), but also truly realize that prejudice, hate, and antagonism don't belong within a family that consists of people on a tiny planet in an enormous world.