We're all in it TOGETHER
Global reunion to make humanity a family affair
It’s a family reunion — so, of course, the whole world is invited. That’s because we’re all family, no matter how different we think we are: Republican Jeb Bush is related to Democrat Hillary Clinton. Microsoft founder Bill Gates is related to the late Apple founder Steve Jobs. Billie Jean King was related to chauvinist Bobby Riggs. And Bible thumper Pat Robertson is even related to atheist Richard Dawkins.
If you go back far enough, we’re all connected by blood or marriage — and writer A.J. Jacobs will celebrate that fact by hosting the world’s first Global Family Reunion on Saturday at the New York Hall of Science.
“I’m envisioning it as a Coachella for cousins,” says Jacobs. “Everyone is invited — the whole 7 billion of us.”
All your relatives will be there (or, more accurately, all there will be your relatives): Magician David Blaine will perform. Lisa Loeb, Paul Williams and “We Are Family” singers Sister Sledge will entertain. Dr. Oz and Henry Louis Gates will talk. And there’ll be sack races! Jacobs became interested in the idea of a global family after receiving an email from a DNA-obsessed stranger claiming to be his distant cousin. Turned out, he was.
“I’m fascinated by the idea that we are all connected,” says Jacobs, the author of such participatory-journalism books as “Drop Dead Healthy” and “The Year of Living Biblically.”
“The global family tree is like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon — but everyone’s Kevin Bacon,” Jacobs says. “By the way, I’m actually related to Kevin Bacon, though it’s more like 18 degrees, not six.”
There’s likely a book project in the Global Family Reunion, Jacobs admits, but for now, it’s really just a big party. And if we keep talking about how we’re all related, perhaps, we’ll be less likely to kill each other.
“I don’t think that all wars will immediately cease when we see how closely we’re all related,” Jacobs admits. “But I do hope it will nudge us toward a bit more tolerance and kindness. The interconnectedness of all humanity is bad news for bigots.”