Life on the Edge

An Ending........ Continuing on with the discussion of "ancestors" begun in the last blog, it has occurred to me that after hundreds of thousands of biological transfers of coded DNA between "males" and "females" over the ages, I am, not only the most recent incarnation, but also the last living being on this particular long thread of existence. This is because of the two knives at work four years ago. One held by the surgeon performing the vasectomy; the other, by some haunting figure of time swinging a vapourous scythe, forever slamming the door shut on any future evolutionary perfecting. After all those generational preparations to create the genetically modified organism called me, I will not pass on any of this coded information to the future for the simple reason that I have never fathered, nor am capable of fathering, any child into this world. Stretching back to the dawn of time and winding its way to the present, one can only imagine the fascinating road my DNA has travelled. However, this particular evolutionary experiment stops with me. In short, I am a genetic dead end. I wish to thank all my forefathers and foremothers for their collective joinings and hope that they, in their ethereal knowing, look upon my physical presence and see a worthy "end result". It would be nice to make them proud.

A Continuation......... This past Sunday, three generations gathered at Windgrove to plant a tree in honour of the continuation of their family's genetic thread of existence. A flowering Pahutakawa tree was placed in the ground, along with the birth placenta, by several friends and maternal grandparents, Kathryn and Dennis, the father, Hape, and mother, Janine. The six day old baby, Arora-Nui (Australian aboriginal and New Zealand Maori for "Great Cockatoo") presided over the occasion. May Arora-Nui be "the One" to lead all of us out of the Wilderness. Or, as the father said, "May she be the one to lead us back into the wilderness". My deep appreciation for this past weekend is being a member in the birth celebrations of the great Family of Humankind. It gives me comfort to know that there are children physically linked, in this manner, to Windgrove. May the eleven trees already planted in their names be joined by many others. May they be fruitful and multiply.