Adrian and I watched a documentary Human Family Tree which is about the National Geographic Genographic Project. I was fascinated, and found myself vaguely wishing to participate. I started following a certain reviewer on Goodreads, and when I saw that he had read (and reviewed) a related book: DNA USA, I decided to pursue these fascinating ideas by getting the book from the library and reading it. The documentary was more of a macro-view of human history, and although the book discusses this, the book was more about personal genealogies. Now I really wanted to participate. I saw that I could probably participate in the geographic project for a minimum of $200. However, if I wanted to do the full battery of tests, the cost would probably start getting closer to $1000. Then I started looking at some of the sources mentioned in the book, and saw that there were even more tests. Now, if I really wanted to, I could certainly spend $1000 on DNA testing. However, to spend that much on something as abstract as DNA testing certainly feels like a splurge. Besides, how to choose which test(s) to start with? Also, for some of the tests, I would need to recruit the cooperation of a male relative, since I don't posses a Y chromosome. Also, probably in the future they will develop cheaper, more comprehensive tests, and then I will feel like I wasted money and time if I buy tests now. Nevertheless, I wanted to participate. Hmmmm... What to do, what to do? I remembered reading a blog post by Steve Pavlina about manifesting coins, a game he played with his daughter based on the Law of Attraction. Law of Attractioners often focus on how to attract wealth into their lives - there's nothing wrong with that, but there are reports of people often circumventing the money step and directly manifesting what the money would have bought. That always sounded like a more efficient, time-saving strategy to me. The idea is to keep your main goal in mind, and not get to attached to any one way of getting there. Also, be open odd detours and taking a baby-step now, even if you don't think it makes much difference to your end goal, small actions can snowball in unforeseen ways.
So then I just started thinking about what it was I really wanted to get out of all of this? Did I want to know my genealogy? Sure, that would be cool, but I could wait on that too. Probably genealogy DNA databases weren't quite complete yet either. Also, do I really want to have my DNA stored in a database that is not under my control? In the day and age of Monsanto patenting seeds, that is a scary thought. However, what will be will be, do I want to live a life of fear or do I want to LIVE with all of the risks that entails?
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing" - Helen Keller
I guess I'll take my chances with life. Still, what do I want out of this? I don't know exactly, but for starters it would be cool to get my own DNA sequenced, even if I don't know what to do with it yet, just for the experience. So, then I started thinking about all the different situations that might leads to someone getting their DNA sequenced. Obviously, there has to be alot of this going on in the name of academic research, and medicine. I had always thought it might be cool to participate in studies (medical or psychological) as a subject, so even if I found something to participate in that was unrelated to DNA, that might be cool. I found a database of open medical studies, and started poking around for information on things relevant to me. I have "missing knuckles" on some fingers of both hands. A bit of prior speculative internet research has led me to believe this is due to Brachydactyly Type E. As it turns out, there was a DNA study going on for a number of deformities, including brachydactyly. Bingo!When life gives you lemons.... make lemonade :) As it turns out, I was eligible to participate. They were also interested in studying the DNA of any of my blood relatives. I got my sister to participate, and also my younger brother (cooperation of a male relative - check!). So, this probably won't lead to me getting my DNA fully sequenced, or my even getting any report on the results. But, it's just so interesting what a little action can lead to...
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