Oftentimes you’d find yourself in a conversation where you’re telling people the history of your family and where your family comes from, even the “types” of blood in your family. French, German, Italian… People fascinate themselves with their heritage and history of relatives that passed many years ago. For example, my grandfather’s mother (on my mother’s side) was born in Germany and my last name (Zeeman) was originally linked to my ancestors in Germany. In other words, I conclude that, along with my South African heritage, I have a lot of “German blood” in me (silly as it may sound).

Coming back to my grandfather’s mother that was born in Germany, let’s think about it for a second. If she was born in Germany, does that not mean she had other relatives there (cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles)? And did her relatives not have more relatives? And did those relatives not have more relatives? And did all the relatives not have children? And did their children not also have children? As confusing as it might sound, the point I’m trying to make is that my grandfather’s mother might have been a part of one huge “stretched out” family. And since I’m a descendant of my grandfather’s mother, her long lost relatives are in some way my relatives, and I might even have a tenth cousin of some sort in Germany that I never knew about. Maybe some relatives moved to different countries and continued the bloodline there. Heck, one of my great great grandparents could have married an Asian and I have a whole part of my family, situated somewhere in Asia, that I never knew of. (And that’s only my mother’s side of the family…)

If you think about it, and I mean really think about it, there are endless possibilities of who our family might be. For all you know, you and I could be relatives of some sort…

What spiked my interest in this topic is a video that I stumbled across a few weeks ago. Do yourself a favor and go watch the video. The video portrays a group of people who took part in genealogy and ancestry tests to find out their exact family bloodline. This is done through a simple DNA test that determines your exact ethnic mix. In this video, a woman mentioned that she wishes a test like this could be made compulsory across the globe, and this is where I would like to pause for a moment. I couldn’t agree more.

If the entire human race was aware of their exact ethnic mix, maybe we wouldn’t be so quick and comfortable to discriminate against certain groups. Maybe we’d realize that the groups we’ve been discriminating against, is actually a large part of our family. Maybe we’d come to the realization that we are actually discriminating against and trashing ourselves…

"Blood is thicker than water."

What if… What if we all knew exactly where we came from and where we had relatives…

Family takes care of one another. Family protects.

What if to some extent we’re all family? What if we all protected one another?

Maybe then we wouldn’t bomb an airport in Brussels. Maybe then we wouldn’t bomb at the Bataclan theatre and the Stade de France in Paris. Maybe then we wouldn’t kidnap people, keep them hostage and torture them because of the religion they follow. Maybe then we wouldn’t slaughter farmers in South Africa. Maybe then an upcoming star won’t be randomly shot and killed in front of fans who just enjoyed her performance. Maybe then mass shootings in bars in Orlando and churches in Charleston won’t happen. Maybe innocent bystanders won’t be shot. Maybe we won’t bomb an airport in Istanbul. Maybe policemen won’t be killed. Maybe we won’t drive trucks over crowds of innocent people in Nice. Maybe, just maybe…

I know a simple DNA test won’t necessarily change the world or flip mentalities completely, but family is family, and family is (literally) where life starts. So why not go back to our roots and, as a family, protect the relatives we have yet to encounter?