Feeling cramped and restricted on Earth and knowing that he was adopted, Lars thinks that finding his true parents and origins "'...might make healing.'" (p. 190) Why? I would value the freedom of not knowing who my parents had been or where I had come from.
When asked if I was interested in earlier generations of our family, I replied that I was more interested in the fact that each of us has two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents etc, yet the world population was much smaller comparatively recently. On the other hand, contact between different parts of the world was much less. So after how many generations are we all related? Further than that, all Terrestrial life is descended from a single self-reproducing molecule. We are related to every microbe and blade of grass.
Lars, a pilot for Fireball, finds that he is the son of the Mayor of Tychopolis and also the great-grandson of the chief of Fireball which explains why he was accepted for Fireball training. He was qualified but so were hundreds of other applicants. So, in his case, it was worthwhile to find out where he came from.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
But many people don't think as you do about genealogies and family histories, esp. many adopted children. Many take an interest in researching such things because of feeling a sense of loss or rootlessness. Others are less "intense" about such matters and do such research as a kind of investigation into history. Both of which are not objectionable.
Sean
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