What My Spit Says About Me

Whenever we  celebrate a birthday in our family, or when it's Mother's or Father's Day,  we get to "declare" what we'd like to do together. This past mothers day I declared that our family  should sit around the living room and fill our spit into test tubes and send them off  in the mail to Ancestry.Com. Both kids and of course my husband were such great sports about it.

 Now that's what I call love.

 I've always been curious about these things, and love connecting dots to flavors, textures, sensations, fabrics other people and  of course, swirls. So it stood to reason, that if there was a way to see where we were was really 'from', it may help to explain somehow what I feel drawn to, and why.

Last night on our way to see last minute tickets to see Tom Petty here in Berkeley, our Uber driver, Dawit, from Ethiopia, was playing music softly through his speakers. I told him to turn it up, since I loved it.  He had said he hadn't heard of Tom Petty before, and then we sang him a few bars of "Free Falling". We  compared notes with  his favorite places to eat Ethiopian food in Oakland, and I told him that my husband and I had our first meal at an Ethiopian restaurant, as well as our son's Pre-Bar Mitzvah meal.

"Ahhh, YESSS!!! So wonderful. I know Tom Now!!!" Dawit said.   Then we all sang the chorus of Free Falling  in unison.

"IT does not matter the name to me of the singer. Just like it does not matter the name of the writer of a book. If it's a good book, I will pick it up to read. Same with music. If I like it, I will listen, no matter the name. Yes, yes, Tom Petty. Free. Free Falling. I do love this song. Yesssss!"

(below is a typical Ethiopian platter, resting on Sourdough Injera Bread, eaten with your hands. It is oh so delicious and fun to eat with those you love!)

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/60/ef/f7/60eff78e971f517cc5357b86a7517888.jpg

And this is how I feel about music too. And food. And clothes. And shoes. If these things fit, and agree with me, I will eat, wear, and listen. No matter the name, designer, nor country of origin.

As I was growing up, I was always told I was "Jewish". I went to a Jewish Day School.  Hebrew was taught for one half of the day, English the next. From the time I was six until I was ten. Then onto Hebrew High School. And then, when I went to public school my perception of myself, and my family began to shift a bit. I knew there was more to it. More to just being "Jewish", and "American", with grandparents who were of Eastern European Origin. As far as they knew...

As a point of reference, I would ask any potential new friend what holidays they would celebrate, what foods they enjoyed, the customs their families shared. I loved learning this about people. It helped me to feel more connected to understand this about them, rather than separate or different. I loved spending days in social studies class watching the flickering movies of Kung Bushman clicking  their tongues  and hunting their way through the Kalahari Desert,  and watching the The exotic Blue Eyed Mongolians riding their horses through the stark Gobi Desert, and how vastly different they lives were from my suburban life in Brookline Massachusetts where I shared a twin bed in my pink bedroom with my fiercely protective  Doberman Pincher, Gumby.

For the longest time, I felt an equal affinity to the Sephardic Jewish Community, as well as to the Ashkenazic, also known as the Eastern European Community. I would always say  that I am a 'Sephardic Wanna-Be", especially during Passover, before the Ashkenazim were able to eat garbanzo beans and even rice during Passover.  I just wanted to try everything on for size. Same goes for when I travel. I try everything out. The one I thing I can't imagine eating is dog.  Yesssss. Dog. I've been offered, and I just can't do it. No sir-eeeee.

So, the test finally came back a few days ago. And it all makes sense. I'm not just any one thing.  And neither is anyone really, unless they feel like they want to be. It just makes everything so much more interesting if we are open to each other's ways of being. I've always felt like a World Citizen.

A Swirled Citizen is probably more like it.

My Grandmother, Who we called Nana, looked to be "Tartar", my dad would say. Some would say she looked like Lena Horne. With her pitch black thick hair, almond eyes, she was beautiful, warm, and kind too.

Just yesterday, I met two Czechoslovakian Sisters at Lake Temescal,  one of our favorite places to take walks. They were enamored of our two dogs, Leo and Nilla. They of course wanted to know if they were related, and I told them of their origins as far as I knew. They were both rescued at different times, and are likely poodles mixed with Bichon Frise, and Nilla is likely part Maltese. Then they wondered about me. They thought that I might be from someplace else entirely, not just Boston. Or Eastern Europe, Lithuania and Latvia as I've been told, and know from our grandparents.

According to Ancestry.Com by way of my spit, I am 89% Eastern European Jewish,  9% from West  Asia, The Caucasus Region. Right away the Czechoslovakian sisters said "Tartar" in unison..which is one of the fifty ethnic groups that are represented in Azerbaijan, Turkey Iraq, Iran, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Greece, and Italy to name a few spots. There's even a photo of some kind of warrior whose profile I used to have until I accidentally broke my nose on my little brother's head.

Now I kind of long for that phantom nose hump.

The other 2% says that I am from Spain and Portugal. As it turns out, on my grandmother's side, her father's name was Rappaport. Which is Portugese in Origin. Which I've always known. So, there you have it. It all makes sense.

I just love this stuff. And it all starts to make sense. People have always loved guessing where I'm from, and I've always loved playing along.

Now  I will need to start making travel plans to retrace my long held roots.

Deep breath.

I am listening to music now. I'm not sure whose playing, or where they're from. As long as I like it, I listen to it.

Yesssss!!!

What foods, textures, music, and swirls do YOU feel drawn to??

And would YOU do a spit test too?

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