Perhaps a deeper understanding of the titular phrase will be achieved if its biological significance is examined, starting from the heart and the veins, the blood and its ties. The heart is an ever-throbbing turbine, a powerhouse of chaos of various emotions beating wildly to circle out the life juice, the blood, through a network of veins and arteries stretched out and intertwined. Intricately designed like a spider’s web. In that same vein, pun definitely intended, humans exist as part of a whole, a tiny thread as part of a yarn, a single living cell as part of a living organism, and we are drawn in towards the cesspool of throbbing society. As much as we all crave to be alone, no human is designed to exist in isolation. Just as a single drop of blood does not serve its purpose by being isolated but rather by being coordinated through the veins and arteries, so does the mapped-out path of life.
In the early beginnings of civilization, the early man migrated across the world and settled wherever he pleased. He formed a community with people he shared blood with either by marriage or by birth. Soon, more individuals, including outsiders, joined him, and the small community began to expand. His descendants had the choice to stay or to migrate—to establish their own communities—and this way, like roots tapping out, civilization emerged. His blood is carried far and wide. This underscores the fact that since all men have been proven historically to have descended from one man, we are all connected. Though the link might prove stronger depending on our direct ancestors, It is thus not strange for people from a certain geographical location to be easily spotted wherever they go. This is because they carry sociocultural, psychological, and physical traits that scream where they come from in their blood.
A very good instance is in the area of genetics. All humans have DNA,whicht makes us all so uniquely different and similar at the same time. We have inherited specific traits from our forebears that mark us out. Certain physical and psychological features, strengths and defects, gifts, or curses, as we sometimes choose to call them, And here, we see the cruel hand of fate. Children are made to bear the consequences of the decisions of their parents, as seen in the case of sickle cell anemia patients, or betteryetl, victims. When two people who are carriers of the illness come together, the children suffer for it. They live their lives knowing their life juice, their blood, is poisoned. There are certain things over which love does not triumph.
As the blessings are shared, so are the curses. The ripple effects of the achievements and failures of our ancestors spill over into our heads. Innocent children are put under unnecessary pressure to live up to the standards set by their forefathers to prove that these gifts run in their blood and that they are not bastards. The bloodline we share confers on us impossible responsibilities to fulfill. Duties to our families, to our friends, to our neighbors, and to our society at large. Our blood ties tie us down like a goat is bound, with little space to roam and explore. So we spend every day of our finite lives, whether we like it or not, trying to live up to these duties because this is the lens through which society is programmed to see us. “Isn’t he the son of Prof….?”
As we make our way through this dense maze, in this foggy haze, bearing unsolicited gifts of which we cannot voluntarily dispose, trying to figure out a pattern of which we did not choose to be a part, we realize that we are not alone, for as we are bound to the ones who have gone before, we are bound to the ones who come after. And we know we are walking on blood. The blood of those we have met and those we have not. The blood of those who have gone before and those who will inevitably come after us. Each drop has a different story. Maybe we are not really meant to understand it, but that is what life is: a puzzle, a question whose solution is constantly staring us in the face. Perhaps death, and only death, might one day do justice.
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