Where are you from? A discussion on place

It's an interesting question: Where are you from? It seems to be a question that most people ask in order to establish some sort of connection. Often I hear the question "Where are you from?" followed by some sort of variation "Oh, I've been there before" or "I have an (insert relative, no matter how distant) who lives there." It's something natural, we all wish to have an immediate connection with new people. Since place is such an intimate part of who we are, the quickest way to establish that connection is to establish a link between you and the place where they're from.

In today's modern world, though, it is becoming harder and harder to really pin down where we are from. For many people, the place they grew up is different from the place they are now, creating a sort of disconnect that occurs between different parts of their lives. They have legitimate connections in both places, but it does seem that most identify with either one or the other, not both. So what determines how people think about "where they are from?" What does it mean to be "from" somewhere?

To a large extent, I believe being "from" somewhere ultimately means being tied in with a particular community located in a specific local. I use this language because today we have so many "communities" that exist without people being in the same location. However, nobody says they are from Facebook, but they say they are from a town, a state, or a country. What makes a place part of a person is the community of other people that person lives, works, plays, and prays in. The community we are a part of determines the place, and in return the place determines a lot about our own identity. This is why "where you are from" can change throughout a persons life. Perhaps for years you find that you answer with where you grow up, but after putting down roots in another community you find you begin to change your answer to where you currently live.

Ultimately, though, in order for a person to really have a place they need to stay in one location for a period of time. They need to spend years, if not decades, in the same community in order for it to really take a hold of them. Sure, we can experience a sort of attachment after many years, but its not the same as a lifetime spent in the midst of a community. Think of those many Irish immigrants who came oversees to America. For years afterwards they identified themselves as Irish because they were the result of centuries of living in one place. They had such a strong identity not just because they were in a new world and trying to preserve their culture, but rather because their parents, grand parents, great grandparents, and great great grandparents lived and breathed that placed called Ireland for centuries.

Indeed, this introduces another aspect of the question "where are you from" that is often lost on us Americans. "Where are you from" can be concerned not just with the history of this particular individual, but it can also refer to a trans-generational aspect of place. What I mean is that the place a person identifies himself with can also be determined by the history of his family. This is something rare in America because of the propensity, present since the beginning of our country, for Americans to move. However, if you ask members of French families where they are from, I can guarantee you that the place they answer is rooted in their family history. I saw this firsthand this summer when one of Liz and I's friends got married to a gentleman from Toulouse, France. You could tell that the place of Toulouse was deeply rooted in his family history, and he and all his relatives surely had a deep connection to the place.

This multi-generational aspect of place is something seen in Americans as well, but in an awkward distant sort of way. Almost all Americans identify themselves as some sort of nationality that may be generations removed, such as Irish, Italian, Spanish, German or Scottish. This connection through the generations is a testament to two things: 1) how strongly ties are established to a place once a family has lived there for generations and 2) how deeply man longs for the stability such a multi-generational place provides. Indeed, though my family has not lived in Ireland for 4 or 5 generations now, we still identify ourselves as Irish. Why do we do this? Because for the most part the family has not yet put down roots since leaving Ireland, opting instead for moving around many different regions. So, since we do not have the same roots we look to where we once were completely stable.

I bring all this up because if we are ever hoping to have a Christian culture again, like Ireland once did, we must respect the demands of place. We must recognize that we cannot move around endlessly, but we must work to establish ourselves in a specific locale and then devote ourselves to that place. If people stop moving, and we begin to establish real communities, how long until some of these communities become Christian in nature? And once they are Christian in nature, won't the Christian aspect of these communities seep into the non-Christians as a part of their person, because of their connection to the place? If it does, won't that person be much more likely to come closer to Christ?

So, let's raise a glass to both the old country and the new country. Here's to our ancestors and to ourselves, might we learn the permanence of place they once knew, so that we can hand it on to our children as it has been handed on to us.