roots

I hail from the South - Texas to be exact. My wife hates Texas, and everything she thinks it stands for. Yet she loves me. Americans can be luke-warm about the U.S., but Texans LOVE Texas, and they LOVE being Texans. The same is pretty much true of anyone from the South. We take a certain amount of pride in our rebel past - in our penchant for going against the status quo. The men and women who settled the southern states were generally industrious, hard-working, sweat-of-the-brow folks who didn't take well to being told what and where and how-for. So rather than toil under the dictates of someone else, they stike out on their own. Throw a dart at a map of east Texas or western Louisiana and you'll most likely hit a town that was settled or founded by one of my ancestors - Avinger, Texas - Stonewall, Louisiana - Bossier, Louisiana - a town or two in Alabama. Forget the toothless, inbred stereotypes - these are iron hard folks who look after their own, and more often as not will refuse aide in any form. They don't have to be rich, they just want to own what they have.
Like many southern folk, I can trace my lineage back to Ireland and Scotland. Again, these are proud folk who can be unruly subjects. I take pride in knowing that my ancestors would not settle for merely making it - they set out, leaving friends and family behind, to make more of themselves and to better provide for the generations to come. Instead of waiting for conditions to improve, they sought to improve their condition themselves. No hand out - no blame. Just action.
I guess the point is this - while my family is largely rooted in the South, and I am quite proud of my Southern (and Irish) heritage, I feel more rooted in the tradition of doing what is necessary, what is right for me and mine, and I won't be told what that is.
I hope that this tradition continues through K1 and K2. I want them to be strong and proud, and to do only what they feel is right, regardless of what their friends, or even their family, tell them. I want them to find their own path - to love it, to own it, and to never settle.