Chimeras

At least once a decade, I try to put in an appearance at the Kornish family reunion. This was the year!

On the trip this summer, we stopped at Dear Mother-in-Law’s home on the way to Middle of Nowhere, PA (reunion venue, and no, not the official name of the town). DMIL was a champion cross-stitcher in her day. This framed one has probably always been hanging in her house, but on this trip, I gave it special consideration.

These lines are an excerpt from a poem called “People Touch Our Lives” by Lois Cheney. Here are the words stitched in case the photo is too small to read:

I believe in God’s master plan for our lives.
People move in and out of each other’s lives,
and each leaves his mark on the other.
You find you are made up of bits and pieces
of all who have touched your life,
and you are more because of it,
and you would be less if they had not touched you.

When I looked at these words hanging by her door, I felt gratitude for all of the bits and pieces I have collected from so many.

I saw some news coverage that gave me a new angle on the idea that other people change us: a link to an article about human chimeras. I had to look up the pronunciation: ky-MEER-uhs. Son 1 and I once discussed the mythical chimera that is a composite of lion, goat, and snake. That discussion was half his life ago, when he had lost his wallet. He swore he last saw it by the chimera statue on campus. That tale is story for another time. That bit and piece helped me recognize the word chimera in the headline.

Human chimeras are people that contain cells from different individuals. There was an article in The Atlantic last year under the title “The Most Mysterious Cells in Our Bodies Don’t Belong to Us.” Sadly, paywall. From the teaser, I can tell that the article covers how fetal cells make a break for it and take up residence in the mother’s body. The Atlantic isn’t breaking the news: that “human chimeras are…a wonder of the human reproductive process” has been known at least since 1953. JSTOR has the citation.

Traces of Son 1 and Son 2 could literally be in my heart. It does feel that way. Dear Daughter-in-Law asked me this week, “what did, or do, you like most about being a mother?” A better answer than the one I gave must include the emotional chimera experience: that our children change us, deeply, continually, and in ways we will never fully know.

The closing lines of the poem from DMIL’s sampler: “Pray to God that you can accept the bits and pieces in humility and wonder, and never question, and never regret.” This is an important message that DMILs can share with DDILs.