Rooted

I once thought those people with whom I felt most at home were only found in one place, miles from my current home, far away from this region we name the "Deep South". Those folks I remember are the type who value practicality over indulgence, speak about values like hard work and endurance. They'll come in for supper with muddied boots, take them off at the door, and fold their hands into a prayer before the fork touches their lips.

Those people.

I thought those home-grown, down-to-earth, trustworthy people could only have come from where I knew them best, could still only be found in the grasslands and the farming communities of the Dakotas. Surely, surely.

But I get older each day. And everyday something new is revealed, something that uncovers a misconception, bridges two thoughts, or just teaches me more about life.

Those people aren't just found in the place I grew up. All types of people are found in every region - the values and conversation, habits and traditions I know most about and feel at home with are found even among people here.
I am a part of them and they me.

I see it in the way you scratch your ear when you talk, how you lean forward with a good story, how our stories are different and intertwined, the same. I see it in the way you laugh at a memory, hold your hands in your pockets, hold a simple confidence deep within yourself. I see it in your eyes, in the ruddiness of your cheeks. It's in the way you walk, the way you see things, in the way a smile develops when you remember that story you forgot.

You people have been here all along, you just word yourselves differently. You couch your phrases with "y'all"s instead of "Uffda"s. You're all Baptist, not Lutheran. You like spicy, not bland. You farm tobacco, not grain.

But inside yourself, you and I are more similar than different. I saw it tonight in the way we told our stories. I saw it in how we remember things, how we talk about who and what we love. I realized that those people I know there are not only in one place - you're also here.

We're all over.

Them's country folk.