THE ANCESTOR SONG
(composed by miriam berg, tune of "Jean Desprez" by Joe MacDonald)
Now each of us has ancestors, that lived and died before;
Our parents two had parents too which makes grandparents four.
We each have eight great-grandparents, sixteen great-great-grandparents, who
Had each of them their moms and dads who number thirty-two!
Back through the years the numbers grow, but somewhere there must be
A common ancestor sometime for each of you and me!
Now every common ancestor, the more years back you go,
Shares another common ancestor with ev'ry one they did know.
Though you and I share someone else from he and she and they,
Yet their forebears shared their forebears with each other in some way.
And thus we all are cousins, of one degree or more;
This is the final irony of every form of war.
But here is now the great surprise, though plain as plain can be:
Since our moms and dads share ancestors upon their family tree,
Then we ourselves share ancestors with ourselves, somehow, somewhere;
We are descended in two ways from more than one forebear.
Back through the years the numbers grow,
but then they start to fall;
No matter where or who we are,
the same two forebears have we all!
Some call the woman Lucy, and some do call her Eve;
She with her mate did us progenitate
when first she did conceive!
(from miriam berg's folksong collection)