Today's question is sparked by a new friend, Jerry, who sat across from me while I was having dinner in Tama the night before my RAGBRAI Tama to Coralville adventure. Jerry is the brother of our bishop, Thomas Zinkula. Jerry and his brother both shared stories about growing up on a farm in Iowa. They both have a passion for bike riding and story telling. Jerry shared how they traced their family roots all the way back to Europe. If my memory serves me well, I believe they uncovered seven generations of the Zinkula bloodlines. Jerry looked me in the eye and asked, "What about your family history?" I shared about my grandfather on my dad's side of the family who raised his family in a small town, Langdon, in North Dakota. "Farmer?" Jerry asked.
"Family physician and father of ten," I answered. "My grandfather relocated the family to Arizona in order for him to be healthier. That's where most of the Mulligans are now." I added that I did a DNA test and discovered a surprise...Tuscany, from my mother's side of the family. Another surprise was Peru, also from my mother's side of the family.
"If your grandfather was a doctor, you must have come from privilege," Jerry surmised.
"Not really," I said. "My dad considered himself to be the black sheep of his family. There were others in my blood lines that got in trouble, like my great-great-great-great grandfather, Captain James Starkey, a captain in the pre-civil war era who faked documents in order to beef up the inadequate food rations for his men, some of them underage. Starkey appeared before a court martial and was found guilty. President Abraham Lincoln commuted his sentence which was harsh. My ancestor was forbidden future military or political service. Lincoln allowed my relative to enter the political arena as Minnesota was becoming a state. Starkey served as a leader in the newly formed state house and went on to set up the sewer system in St. Paul, Minnesota."
I turned to the bishop and brought up the story I shared with him while in Ireland on the pilgrimage he led. It was time to go deep, like 2,000 years deep. This story sounds like science fiction. I didn't have the kind of help the Zinkula family had when they hired ancestry specialists in Europe to uncover their family history. I had something very different. I talked about the Demoniac Luke wrote about in the Bible. I found him when I prayed to Jesus to show me who I am in his eyes. Warning! Don't do this unless you are ready for your life to be forever changed. If you don't know the story of the demoniac, it's about a homeless crazy man possessed by multiple demons. He lived in caves, wore no clothes, and scared the Hell out of the villagers who lived nearby. Talk about a black sheep of the family. This guy is the ultimate skeleton in your closet.
Bishop Zinkula shared that this story is not part of the cycle of readings and is not really talked about much. I asked, "Is there anyone else in the Bible who asked to follow Jesus but was turned down?" Neither of the Zinkula brothers could think of anyone other than the demoniac. Everyone else got a pass; the prostitute, the tax collector, the murderer, everyone. Jesus goes out of his way to save the man, give him clothes, and restore him to humanity and now he's leaving him behind.
There was no way I was going to leave Bishop Zinkula, soon to be the archbishop of Dubuque, or his brother Jerry on a sour note. My interpretation of this caveman I saw in the mirror is that Jesus had a special plan and this man needed to stay behind to publish all the good Jesus is doing for him. I told Jerry that's what I do every day when I write my stories."
"How many stories have you written?" Jerry asked.
"5,000. My hope is that my story will end the same way the Demoniac's story ended. If you read the full story in Luke 8:26-40, Jesus returns to the village and there's a whole crowd waiting based on the once-possessed man's story telling."
Okay. I've spilled the beans on my family history. How about you? Do you know where you come from? Let me know the next time our paths cross. Have a great day.
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