One Year of Auntie's Advice

One my trip to my Father's ancestral village, the person who I gained the most from meeting was my Strina, which is defined as your Father's Sister-in-Law. An aunt by marriage but not an aunt by blood (Tetka).

My Strina had an interesting life. At age 16, her family held a wedding between her and my Father's 18 year old brother. She was packed off in a wagon, and for all intensive purposes abandoned by her clan with the Erlic's.

Being an outsider by birth, she had a unique perspective on the Erlic clan that was very similar to that of an Anthropologist studying another culture or a troop of chimpanzees. She knew who she was, she had very little idea of what and who the Erlic's were, and she was very eager to observe and learn. To the Erlic Clan, she is our Professor Jane Goodall. The foremost authority on our physiology, psychology, pathology and behavior. She understands us better than any of us that were born Erlic.

Last summer, during my morning coffee with my Strina, I would be there with my journal asking her questions about us, and furiously taking notes in my journal. She would provide me the full lowdown on every relative that I couldn't meet due to them dying before my trip. From my discussions with her and other male clan relatives I learned about the extent of our inherant health problems:

1> High Blood Presure - Erlic's have a naturally higher than averaage blood presure, and any excess weight tends to exasperate the problem. My hunch is that having high blood presure provided the ancestors of the Erlic's that lived in the swamps of Hercegovina some kind of evolutionary advantage. Most likely the ability to keep blood circulationg when the body is uder external pressure.

2> High blood cholesteral - Erlics have high ratios of LDL to HDL, and overall high levels of cholesteral. Again excess weight would exasperate the problem. Again my hunch is a high cholesterol level provided us an advantage when we inhabited the swamps of Hercegovina in the sense we had ready supplies of molecular building blocks in our bodies to alllow us to heal quicker.

3> Explosive tempers - Erlics were able to reside in Hercegovina for 20,000 years continuously until the Turks drove them out when they emptied the swamps between Siroki Brijeg, and Mostar. You could not have held onto Hercegovina (The garden of Eden) for 20,000 years unless you were a serious badass.

To be continued....