Grassroots
As individuals we are products of our parents and the environment in which we grow up. If your mother is out drinking and your dad is sleeping with the neighbour, this will affect your way of looking at things when you're older. "Free will" in this sense is an illusion, because we cannot control our genetic makeup and cannot do much about the surrounding factors, like in which part of the town you grow up, which people you meet, which accidents you're facing etc.
Because the local community, which we are accustomed to since birth, carry such strong ties to who we are as individuals, it is also something valuable and important to our personal lives. It constitutes our childhood, our platform, on which we develop and build up a more mature lifestyle.  Many people prefer to remain in the area near where they grew up as children, not only because that's where they have all their friends and close associates, but also because the environment itself means something special to them.
Every tree, every field of grass and flowers, every trail in the forest where you used to walk when you were young, has shaped you and turned you into who you are today. It is your root, your identity, and without it as a part of the overall process of life, you wouldn't be you. This is why we must value the local community and the local environment, because these are tied to us as people and share a common origin.
Some people, often the ones that have grown up in larger towns, will speak against this idea and claim that it does not matter where we live. This is not the case: even if you grow up as a lonely being in a large city of traffic signs, night clubs, and city halls, these things will have shaped your life and way of looking at things. You will feel accustomed and secure, living in a more busy and crowded area, than what someone that has worked all his life at a farm, will.
So therefore I say: be proud of your origin, whatever it might be, be proud of who you are and of the things that made you unique. Value the place in which you've grown up and fight to preserve it; keep it healthy and strong. Always remember your birthplace. When you feel lost in a new area, find direction and guidance by looking back at what shaped your life and gave it meaning. Every green field has its grassroots, and only the lost individuals will ignore them or try to pluck them up from the earth.
by Alex Birch
March 25, 2007
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