Microchimerism? Chissà?
My darling daughter sent a Thanksgiving email to all her family from Siena and in it wrote:
Hello friends and family!
I just wanted to send a quick Happy Thanksgiving your way! Don’t think I missed out on our American tradition, we got together last night (the day before Thanksgiving) to celebrate. All 22 of us students, and even our program director, crammed into one apartment, with more food than I’d ever seen in my life. We even had a turkey. Well, they even had a turkey. Our program director is vegetarian too, so we had fun!
Depending on the time zone, some of you are just sitting down to eat, and others are wondering how they are ever going to fit desert, but I hope there is love and laughter surrounding everyone’s dinner table. This was my very first Thanksgiving away from family, and I’ve got to say, I did not anticipate that I would miss our commercialized holiday. Even though I still had a “Thanksgiving,” and with a group of people I can truly call my make-shift family this semester, we have grown so close, I guess the idea of Thanksgiving made me realize how homesick I am. So maybe I just miss family more than I miss Thanksgiving… or maybe it’s just chilly here, and I miss California. Who knows? Or as we say here, chissà? It’s become one of my favorite phrases, and it almost epitomizes the Italian lifestyle for me. Somethings we don’t need to know, and no one really knows, but we accept them because if we tried to make sense of it all, there is a possibility that the beauty would be gone. Of course, I am incredibly thankful, and I feel so blessed, for having been able to come and study in Siena. Tuscany is becoming a part of me, and I hope it stays that way, at least for a little while longer.
I’ll update the blog soon… with pictures of Paris!! Yes, I’m off to Paris tomorrow noon, so that will keep me busy for a while. Monday I’ll come back, churn out a couple papers, study for some finals, and then I’m leavin’ on a jet plane December 19th!
With love, con amore,
Tricia
Even in her email she is a true blogger at heart. I see myself in her prose. The way she spins a tale, meanders around a subject matter or touches us softly with her words. My literary fingerprint is woven into her diction’s DNA.
I read once that scientists discovered fetal cells can actually remain in a mother’s body for decades after birth. It’s called fetal microchimerism and it goes both ways, with the cells of the mother also left behind in her child’s blood stream for longer than any of us imagined.
In my heart she is always with me, suddenly becomes a literal confirmation! More like, My spleen will forever hold you close or My liver will never forget your smile.
Science has yet to determine the nature of these fetal cell stowaways as they seem to be both the cause of auto-immune disease and the cure to cancer depending on which study you site. Whether good guys or gangsters these kin cells are often found milling about the scene of a crime in the host body. It is the conundrum of family ties.
Just whose body of blood does flow through these veins? What cells are mine and who else lives inside this sinewy vessel? Microchimerism? Chissà?
We are bombarded by our Oneness, as we finish a thought of a friend, see our Self in the Actor on the movie screen, marvel in the synchronicity of strange coinciding events or in the silence when we catch a glimpse of our true expansive nature.
How do we know where our body stops and the world outside begins? The line continues to blur as the veil of separation grows ever thin. As separate as bubbles in the sea’s wave we are nonetheless part of the same oceanic body.
Perhaps one day as Science and Theology continue to converge the mystery of our spirit body will illuminate our mortal mind. Or perhaps, somethings we don’t need to know and we accept them as such because if we tried to make sense of it all, there is a possibility that the beauty would be gone.