by Greg Lincoln
Have you noticed that as we age, we start to look more and more like younger versions of our parents? As I started growing older, our kids would tell me that I look like their ap’a, which is okay with me. Some folks have even mistaken me for one of my older siblings. If you have sibs, you know what I mean.
There was once a person who visited a very dear old elder in one of our villages. The elder saw the visitor as the mother of that visitor because they looked so much alike, instead of who they really were which was the child. The elder was very happy to see them and was conversing with them, still thinking it was the child of the person they thought they were talking to. The visitor, from the elder’s view, looked exactly like the parent.
The point is, the elder was happy to see them even though there was the case of mistaken identity. I’m sure the person told them that they were not the parent, but the next generation down. It would not be unheard of to think that the elder laughed at the whole misunderstanding.
I hope that you are doing okay with staying home and are keeping busy. We still have the outdoors to enjoy, the refreshing tundra, and that is great comfort to our homebound selves and to our pets who love to go out. Even if the wind is howling you can still enjoy a short walk in your neighborhood. The exercise will exhilarate you and open doors for other activities such as tackling some ambitious project.
It is also good to see families subsisting and fishing while observing social distancing. It is pike fishing season and that means somewhere out there someone is making pike egg akutaq with tundra cranberries, or qerpertaq.
Please stay safe friends and neighbors!
