Hello there~
The concept of ancestral roots is an important one in our transnational time. My ancestors are British, Scottish, and Irish, with someone German somewhere along the way as well. Here I am, in the land of my ancestral history. People know that I am Irish by the way I look and they often comment that my surname, McClure, is a good Scottish name. It doesn't feel like a homecoming though. I find English people to be rather snivelly and uncurious, and the fight to keep a positive outlook in the damp cold darkness is a daily act of courage. As important as the reclaiming of heritage is to so many people, there is never a true going back. I am descended from the ones who left. They left for a reason, they wanted freedom, more choices, adventure; they took risks. These reasons for leaving are imprinted in my DNA just as my eye color and the shape of my features are. I cannot claim an ancestral race as the basis for my being at all...What I can claim is the resonance of time and place. I am of the Californians, the North Carolinians, and maybe if I live here long enough I will be of the English as well. I am not sure I want to be, and that is the beauty of the new body in the new millennium. We choose who we become relative to time and place, we put ourselves where we want to be imprinted, we leave an imprint there. We are human first and foremost, delineated only as we wish to be. Do we have any roots at all? Must we assert our differences with such adamance? The world wide web of the heart is at hand. :)
In harmony~
1 comment:
What a lovely discourse on roots. I feel rootless, and I appreciate a new perspective on that. My geneological roots are Welsh, British, German, Eastern European--I am a melting pot! And not only did those folks leave their homes for America and a better life, likewise my own parents left their families and familiar grounds and ended up in NC. Unlike my husband, whose extensive family has stayed close to where they were reared, and who has classic memories of family gatherings at his grandfather's farm, I have no clear geographic roots to claim. So I cling to my heart attachment to the earth itself, to the trees, the oceans, the bugs, the soil. Child of the universe. :) Thank you dear beautiful Hannah :)
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