Mayflower

Did you know that the Mayflower Compact was signed 400 years ago last week? Well, I didn't. I learned recently from FamilySearch that six ancestors of mine sailed aboard the Mayflower in 1620. I am grateful for these ancestors who, along with others, immigrated to this country in search of religious freedom. Among them was my Danish great-grandfather Christian Jorgensen Plowman who, at age six, crossed the plains with a handcart company in the 1860s to a new home in Utah.

At the same time I learned this, I came across an article that explained just how pivotal and important the Mayflower Compact was in American and world history: “Before this mixed group stepped ashore, they signed an agreement, which we now call the Mayflower Compact. In that document, they set aside their deep divisions and voluntarily joined together to govern themselves with ‘just and equal laws.’ This was the very beginning of principled self-government among European settlers in the New World. The Mayflower Compact is not quite 200 words long, but those words pack almost as much meaning as Thomas Jefferson distilled into the Declaration of Independence 156 years later, or Abraham Lincoln in 1863 condensed into the Gettysburg Address.”

Roots

A few weeks ago, JB and I sent DNA samples in to Ancestry.com to have them analyzed and to learn a little bit more about our own respective ancestries. Today, I received my results. They look like this:

Confirming what we all basically already knew, I am pretty much the whitest white person around.

OCD and Indexing

How does obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) wreak havoc in my life? Let me count the ways.

Then, let me count them again. And again. And again . . . and once again.

Now that that's been taken care of, for now anyway, I've alluded to my struggle with OCD here on Paco Nation a few times before now but have never really devoted a full post to it until tonight. At this point, I really don't have anything to lose. So, here goes.

OCD is defined as "an anxiety disorder in which people have unwanted and repeated thoughts, feelings, ideas, sensations (obsessions), or behaviors that make them feel driven to do something (compulsions)." Now, if I ever have to give a church talk on the subject, I'll be prepared with that definition.

I stress the unwanted portion of that definition, mind you. OCD affects different people in different ways. Some people, like Jack Nicholson's character in As Good as It Gets, have physical rituals to get them through the day. Others obsess about hand washing and germs. Still, others deal with unwanted thought patterns that occur in repeated cycles.

I am among the third group, I think. There may be more groups/behaviors, but I don't really feel like researching that right now.

OCD first reared its ugly head when I was 13 years old. I remember the first time I encountered it very clearly. It was my first moment feeling truly panicked in life, and I didn't understand why I was feeling panicked about this particular moment. Understanding would not come for years, unfortunately.

Other anxiety-filled episodes recurred over the years, and I realized my OCD wasn't ever going to go away. In particular, it really made some jobs and life as a missionary extremely difficult for me at times. Bless their hearts, my bewildered companions wondered what I was going through almost as much as I did at certain moments, if they weren't making fun of me during those times of indecision. I do not know that I would have reacted any differently from them had I not gone through it all myself.

Recently, members of my ward took part in the Church's worldwide indexing event in the form of a "Family History Hangout," during which a few of us, myself included, learned to index names and information from census files and other forms of data for the first time.

In principle, this was a great idea. But OCD had another thing in store for me. It came out rather quickly on this night, making my brain figuratively explode rather early into the evening as it tried to figure things out when things didn't make a lick of sense.

I will have to give indexing a try again some other time. I see the benefit in it now. At least I didn't run from the room screaming.

It's still an ongoing battle for me, this OCD thing. Nevertheless, where there is knowledge, there is additional hope. Though I didn't understand much about OCD at the onset of my teenage years, I have learned so much about it over time and how I can deal with it in healthy ways. If I look at it from a glass-is-half-full perspective, I see how OCD actually helps me in such things as doing my editing/proofreading work and also in being aware of others' needs.

Now that I've shared all of that, date me all the girls.

Also, I need to now proofread this post a couple of dozen times.

To Everything, Turn, Turn, Turn . . .

"And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
 -Malachi 4:6

A very interesting Facebook post appeared among my notifications last week, from which I learned that, with the touch of just a few buttons, I could learn whom among the members of the Island of Misfit Toys I am related to distantly. It was a very educational and enlightening experience.

Among the members of my very own ward, I have a sixth cousin, an eighth cousin, as well as several ninth, tenth, and eleventh cousins. I have even, years ago, been out on a date with *gasp!* one of my ninth cousins.

Further, this link on FamilySearch also allows you to see which famous politicians, inventors, innovators, writers, singers, etc. are part of your family tree. I was intrigued and delighted to find out that among my many cousins are:

President John Adams (4th cousin, 8 times removed)
Susan B. Anthony (6th cousin, 4 times removed)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt (7th cousin, 2 times removed)...
Thomas Edison (7th cousin, 3 times removed)
The Wright Brothers (7th cousin, 4 times removed)
Buster Keaton (8th cousin, 3 times removed)
Prime Minister Winston Churchill (9th cousin, 5 times removed)
President Thomas Jefferson (9th cousin, 5 times removed)
Walt Disney (9th cousin, 5 times removed)
Amelia Earhart (10th cousin, 3 times removed)
Elvis Presley (13th cousin)

In LDS circles, I have connections to President George Albert Smith (4th cousin), President Brigham Young (6th cousin), Elder Neal A. Maxwell (8th cousin)—and even the Prophet Joseph and Hyrum Smith (8th cousins), to name just a few.

What does this have to do with the above scripture? Well, from my experience, I have felt some sort connection to several of these people in the past few years—several of whom I come to find out are somehow, albeit distantly, part of my family tree.

Last summer, for example, I read John Adams's lengthy-but-very-educational biography and loved it. I have also read and enjoyed biographies of Presidents Young and Smith and of Elder Maxwell in the past few years. For an ongoing work project, I have researched and written biographies/profiles of Anthony, Churchill, Disney, Earhart, Edison, Jefferson, and the Wright brothers. A couple of years ago, I also discovered the silent comedic films of Buster Keaton and became an immediate fan.

In other words, I've been or become interested in many of these people and their exploits somewhat recently. Last week, I came to find out we are connected even more closely than by ideas and ideals. It makes me wonder whether the hearts are already turning and we're not completely aware of it happening. Maybe the same thing is happening to you and you're not quite aware right now just how or why at this moment, but all will be made clear someday.

Could it all be a coincidence? Perhaps.

Then again, perhaps not.