Indebtedness to Inheritance - Part I

By Shade McCurdy

“Why am I me? Of all possible times and places, why was I born here and now?”

These existential questions have occurred at least once in each person’s life. None of us have any personal experience about all the events which preceded one’s own lifetime. From this limited perspective, it’s easy to feel detached from history, and it may seem like the circumstances of your birth were complete chance.

The notion that your biological identity is irrelevant—simply because you personally didn’t get to choose it—is the prevailing belief in the postmodern worldview, and it is corrosive to our sense of kinship and duty.

From your parents’ perspective, your birth was not a random event that happened. You did not just appear on their doorstep with completely randomized traits. You are the culmination of the life choices and genetics of both your mother and father. They never could have produced something that was not of themselves, even if the pregnancy was unplanned. Every step before and after conception led to the formation of your identity. When you grew in your mother’s womb, your parents tried to imagine who you would become and what you would do with your gift of life.

This is true for every generation of your family which came before you. If you go back just six generations, you’ll find 64 people whose lives perfectly intersected to create you. If you keep going back, it quickly becomes thousands of ancestors, and if a single person in that lineage was missing or changed, you would not be who you are. Is that chance? Or is it causality?

Our heathen ancestors understood the force that is wyrd. Like threads, our lives are woven together in both seen and unseen ways.

I guarantee that if you search your own family tree, you will find every possible story. Royalty and peasantry. Warriors and farmers. Heroes and cowards. They are all your kin. Their blood flows through you.

What does this mean?

You can ponder the alternate possibilities of having been born this or that… or you can act with the hand you’ve been dealt. Just remember that every possible outcome is contained within you.

Hail the Norns!