Iceland - contnued

 I had been trying to figure out what attracted me abut each country so that I could settle in on a purpose. And the main contenders, though all equal in allure, still lacked one thing, and that was being a frontier, and I just could not escape the idea that despite perfections and great people achieving great things, the important thing to me about ancestry is the stories of those who lived that we can learn, and thereby stand on their shoulders.

The early latter-day saints offer many stories of conviction and endurance and conviction, as does the story of Moses and his pioneer saints, in fact I have often heard Brigham Young likened unto Moses, the thing that is strikingly common is that to actually perfect their way of life escape was required. Is there something to that? I instantly thought of Enya's song about the place of no frontier, even my great grandfather tried to find one in Alaska, huh? why? and there is my answer.

It started for me in realizing commonalities in languages that I probably imagined there, but I knew one thing wanderlust is powerful and I was not wrong in thinking about why. Even the American Indians sought refuge in a frontier, well, maybe there are no more, hence the growing interest in colonizing other habital planets, this is the point I thought again on Iceland.

Maybe being so frigid and isolated by water has kept the population down. technically I would not be undoing anything ancestors fought that I might have. They never lived there, plus, what I can tell from the oral history or Sagas that the population is pretty much half Scottish and half Scandinavian. Love it! Any my perfect little Norway is usually the deceptive enemy, that fit's too.

There is no escaping that life in Iceland would be extremely difficult, but in comparison, it would be sooo much easier than colonizing, let's say, Titan. And maybe, that was a little privy conversation I never heard where my Greatgrandfather decided to try isolation by cold, volcanic location...

A combination of things

 I just had this realization that could only happen in the way it did, in the specific order of thoughts that would trigger a chain reaction of thoughts that I am not going to retrace because I would get lost in doing so. The point of explaining them is that Truly, I did not think to orchestrate the realization, but it would have only been possible to "engineer" if a person truly knew what I was thinking.

Ok, so this morning we were studying on those poor Saints who were trying their hardest to obey what they believed was best only to sacrifice everything to move to the middle of nowhere, but perfectly arranged, almost a miracle, they were saved and taken in and given a home/land by this dude, Lyman Copely. They must have been so relieved and knew the command came from God because they were cared for after their sort of blind, hopeful, sacrifice. Then, this Copely guy renigs and kicks them off of his land, after making promises to them. Imagine how upset they would be. My kids said, they probably wanted to kill him or something. Think about their faith though! Here, this huge blessing from God was being taken...uh, maybe it wasn't from God? Either way, they get another message from God and the first thing he says to instruct/comfort them is repent. Huh? Then, he instructs them on where and how and when to go somewhere else. But, Joe kept clinging to the fact that breaking a promise was very bad, but it was not their business, God would take care of that. 

Years ago, I got a book from a neighbor about how God will fight our battles. I see the concept, but doubt I really grasp that concept yet. There are things that are supposed to "fall through" cause men have their choices and that must be respected. It is not our job to make sure things are just, we cannot reward or punish sufficiently and need to repent of that sort of thinking. It is our duty to become and live the sort of life that would help things come to pass as they should, and so we can pray for guidance and it WILL be given. And though not everyone will decide the best things, if we trust that God not only knows us, but knows them and still let them go and be turned away like that, he probably had a purpose. That is as hard for me to digest as was the way Alma had to just not intervene when anyone who he had taught believed him was thrown into a fire. but, people need to make their choices...that's what it always boils down to.

Iceland

 Ok, I figured out how I was matching so many Icelandic folk genetically through my habitual watching of YouTube videos (ok. let's just be honest, I was being obsessive) but, during one video in particular, I was starting to feel a connection to the landscape. Now, I realize that no video recreation comes close to capturing the sensation of being there, but I felt a renewed attachment to this frigid landscape that I do not feel when viewing  Scotland or Norway, in all of their beauty. Although, I had no actual ties to Iceland I could not dismiss my attachment. So, as I listened to ancient sagas at one point it was described how the early settlers were mostly Irish Scottish Women and Norse men. Ah hah! I am Scottish on my mom's side and Scandinavian on my dad's side, no wonder I share detected genetic similarities.

I determined that I would renew my attempts to learn the Icelandic language, maybe just to write a good ballad for a saga or two. As I did, I noticed a strange thing. beyond any other language I had learned or excelled at, The very alphabet just felt good and natural, it seems like the way I ought to speak. I hope I still feel that way a year or so from now.....well, I really did like Scottish Gaelic as well, but the impression caused my speaking it did not cause the same sensation

In Spanish I just give up in trying to roll my r's. In Hebrew, though it sounds so beautiful, the most beautiful actually, just say the word Shalom, see? Peaceful, huh? Anyhow, I struggle with the ch sound you know, the phlegmy sound. Oh another story! when I was in Belgium, a girl was helping me learn Flemish by pointing at an object. I would say the word in English and she would say it in Flemish, and then French, and lastly in German. The funny thing was when we got to the word Sticker. She pointed, I said "Sticker". She nodded and said, "Sticcc(clearthroat)ccker", after which my laughter covered anything else she said, confused she asked what was wrong. I simply said that I understood now why it is called Flemish. Anyhow, so in Icelandic, I got to the letter "r" and without any worry or stress rolled my r perfectly as if it were completely natural to me! I cannot wait to be able to speak and sing in Elfish, uh, Icelandic!

Wow!

 Just Wow! This is a rabbit hole I could build a home in and enjoy living there. It is the Genetic code and it's role in determining humanity. I remember my biology teacher telling us how exciting the Genome project was because they were going to map out and sequence every single allele in human DNA.

I finally got one of those DNA analysis thingys done, and have been studying it, to kill time, initially because I had no other thing to do, but, now it is because I want to. It fascinates me how simple information summed up by GATorC call tell each cell what to do, I guess it makes perfect sense to people who realize that AI or computers only have two choices, and yet, they are at times considered lifelike.

, ok enough generalities...I noticed in my sequence of Genes a very odd tendency of Allele duplication, in many cases resulting in a recessive trait from two dominant parents. Now, this may be the norm, but I think it is a little wink. I will now have a purpose for knowing others DNA if  only to see if it is most common for Alleles to "twin". I will explain with an simple phenotype of eyecolor.

In a scenario where A+G =brown and T+G=green and G+G=Blue and A+ anything appears brown

It was considered a simple dominant/recessive thing, which propelled me into further research because my mother had the dominant color of brown  But, really, It is a matter of having a sequence to produce certain pigment amounts, and because her sequence included an allele to produce a lot of it, and one to not produce it, and my dad didn't contribute any then statistically, I had a fifty/fifty chance of getting a color other than blue, but because my genes tend to match, the only option to match would be to have two Alleles that are recessive. As with many traits,  I end up with a "recessive" which seems impossible in the old way of thinking about it, but perfect sense if Allele matching is the most common thing to do...It would be like a matter of finding a common denominator between parents which in many cases results in a less likely expression, in terms of dominant/recessive.

To sum up. I will be spending a whole lot of time studying this and loving it!

I am more cautious

 It is noticable that people slow down with age, but it is becoming more and more notable to me how much more time a simple thought takes. A video I watched about/by Norwegians made that comment about Americans. Americans seem to live fast, think fast, act fast.... they thought it might be a lack of recognizing the importance of considering. because my thoughts do not come as quickly, I notice particulars that mattered practically not at all to me, like using Euphemisms and pronouns when not speaking to people face to face, much of what I am communicating is lost and I like to consider each phrase at least three or four ways to avoid unintentionally saying something to offend. I think that trait comes with age... or maybe maturity

things I know

 I don't know much, but that I absolutely love music and playing the piano in particular.

I love to run.

Neither which I can do, and although many years and lies have tried to settle in the void, it remains true that I need to play the piano. And when I see a field I feel the strongest urge to get up and run, though to what purpose I have never known, and that fact that I lacked a purpose has kept me from accomplishing.

No more.

It was solidified by a few comments about what is undeniably our heritage, there are things that I could not figure out, and yet, I know them, un phased by discoveries that eventually prove what I already knew.

for a second I will not speak in generalities and say that I was watching a historical movie and it produced an emotional response, and I started crying. Uh, so what, that is the aim of Hollywood, right? Well, It wasn't anything particularly emotional it was more of a sensation of remembering. Then the idea in my mind was, "Remember this reaction." I was not crying because I was sad, it was like a baby cries because they do not know how else to communicate. "When you get close to knowing anything you will feel this way".. Instant reaction? uh uh, I am not one of those weepy people. Beauty or happiness doesn't bring me to tears.... then nothing. Ok, so what do I know? I know that I enjoy playing the piano and running for no reason.