Our Roots

With Thanksgiving less than a week away, many minds and hearts are turned towards our families, the people who are related to us by blood.  Personally, my family is very important to me, though I'm not very showy about it (I'll try to call more often).  Our families are the first people we are able to interact with, to socialize and bond with.  They are our first teachers, our first disciplinarians, and our first friends.  But family is a lot more than that.  Families are traditions and customs.  Things passed from generation to generation, even if the meaning is lost.  Family is our roots.  There are many people who will say that certain traits or attributes are "in our blood."  Sure, in our scientific age, we can simply call this "genetics" but where's the magic in that?

There's a passage of dialogue in Robertson Davies' "The Rebel Angels" which talks about people using this analogy of "roots" and what makes us who we are.

No splendid crown without the strong root that works in the dark, drawing its nourishment among the rocks, the soil, hidden waters, and all the little, burrowing things.  A man is like that; his splendors and his fruits are to be seen, to win him love and admiration.  But what about the root?
Have you ever seen a bulldozer clearing land?  It advances upon a great tree and shoves and pushes inexorably until the tree is down and thrust out of the way, and all of that effort is accompanied by a screaming and wrenching sound from the tree as the great roots are torn from the ground.  It is a particularly distressing kind of death.  And when the tree is upturned, the root proves to be as big as the crown.
What is the root of man?  All sorts of things that nourish his visible part, but the deepest root of all, the tap-root, is that child he once was...That is the root that goes deepest because it is reaching downward towards the ancestors.



The imagery of a tree being forcefully, and violently,  torn from the ground encapsulates what it can mean for a person to try and tear themselves away from their history.  Many people feel some kinship to their past, be it culturally, racially, or even spiritually.  Attempting to abandon that connection, or being unable to express that part of ourselves can be a trying and painful time.

Even when placed in a situation or place where they are away from their kin, people strive to hold onto the values of their roots.  In the immigrant tradition of the United States, when people from other countries integrated into our culture, they still very often held to their own traditional beliefs too.  In doing this, they also sought to be around people who shared those customs, resulting in ethnic neighborhoods like Chinatowns and Little Italies all across the country.

So, when you're sitting down to the turkey and dressing or whatever you have when celebrating Thanksgiving this year, ask around and learn a bit more about what makes you who you are.  Ask about your history.  Your roots.