Sh*t. Even worse than knitting while drinking* is blogging while dozing. Thanks for coming back to read today. Seriously. I expected to go onto bloglines and see that my little list of subscribers had all run for the hills. Then I would have been so, so sad. And disappointed in myself.
Let me try again with my musings about being a mutt. Based on family trees done by various dedicated relatives, I know that my French relatives came to America (it wasn't the U.S. yet), then moved up to Canada, where…and this is seems like a story waiting for me to write…they were part of the Acadian movement south where they became Cajuns. Oh, wait. Maybe that story has already been written. Back north they came, and my maternal grandfather was the eventual result. Wait. I'm the result. Wait. We all are in my family.
Not all of my family came here so long ago. My maternal grandmother's father traveled here from a little town in Scotland. When I was a girl, one of his relatives (shame on me for not remembering the relationship; I'll have to ask my mom) used to visit now and again. My oldest sister was penpals with a cousin of some sort for a while. Years back, my aunt visited some of the family, and she was moved by how generous they were with their hospitality. My mom and I both hope to see the seat of our Scottish roots some day.
It's pretty neat to see a place from which your family came, isn't it? Even though I wasn't in the right parts of the country, I was thrilled to spend some time in France and England and Ireland, and especially Nova Scotia where those Acadians once resided. It's pretty neat, too, to consider the personality traits that are often attributed to a nationality emerge in my family. I grew up hearing my mom chide me not to be a "stubborn bull-headed German like your father" (ahem), and the "thriftiness" so often associated with the Scots rages in my mom…I confess to having a bit of it in me, too.
For a long time, I was envious of anyone who had parents who had come here from another country. So much family in a different, exciting location! How neat! Other languages! Better food! Different music! I may not have that, but I do have an abundance of cultures that I can explore as I look closely at my genetic identity.
Today's question for my intrepid contestants: if like me you are a mutt, do you identify more with one aspect of your heritage than others? Have you visited any of your places of origin? Not a mutt? What connects you the most to your cultural heritage?
*may result in knitting in the round backwards. Not a pretty sight!
