I pen these musings with apologies to Alex Haley and Mark Twain, who never actually said; The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. Roots was written by Alex Haley. I am no Alex Haley. I am just a woman who came to St. Louis not knowing what she would find here.
Twenty two years ago I drove a U-Haul truck filled with a lifetime full of 'stuff' from L.A. to St. Louis followed by a car driven by a wife with two kids, a dog, and more 'stuff'. I return to California after passing through the crucible of the Gateway City. I have shed a facade and a family. I emerge purified, and authentic. I carry less 'stuff' and I am returning to California, San Francisco, by plane.
What are roots? I find roots in front of me, I have roots behind me, and underneath me. If you dig in a garden, you find the roots are interconnected. One plants roots weave and twist together with it's neighbor's roots. I found just that sort of interconnection here. There are ancestral roots; Mother, Father, and their fore bearers. There are geographical roots. There are roots of identity. Roots may be as much about where you are going as where you have been. Roots are seen to be what is true and authentic. Roots are underneath, at the core, they are the base from which each life grows and blossoms in it's own unique and individual beauty. Roots are support and the LGBT Community of St. Louis has been that for me.
I leave St. Louis, but I take my roots with me as I plant myself in San Francisco. Those interconnected roots will take hold in soil that is at once old, and new. I return to California, to San Francisco, where my parents first lived in California. I leave St. Louis where my ancestors lived beginning in 1830. I return to California, a woman fully aware of my roots, my connections, my identity. I am proud of who I am and where I come from. I know where I am going and I have a purpose. Thanks to all who have knelt beside me and helped me dig at my roots. Your help has been invaluable, and at the same time, you are my roots. I will write down more of my thoughts about roots, about digging in the dirt of my soul as I touch down and replant those roots in San Francisco. Home is where the heart is. I leave a piece of mine in St. Louis.
Liz e LaVenture
