Part 1: Cradle Songs & Distant Melodies- Where are you From?

Part 1: Cradle Songs & Distant Melodies

“Where are you from?”

You can LISTEN to this entire story in the April Edition of "Unpolished Performances", a free podcast in the iTunes Store. Download episodes, by clicking on this link.

That question starts off so many conversations. I’ve never known how to answer it. It comes up about the time we get down to brass tacks, when it comes to really knowing something about each other.

I can see the wheels turning in the other woman’s head, just as they are spinning in mine. Did her parents come from some other shore? What was her school and home life like? Does she come from a rural, suburban or urban environment? Once I know those things, the answers will lead, rightly or wrongly, to some kind of judgement call when it comes to the opinions she is likely to have.

The best answer I can come up with is that I’m a Californian. Much of my education was here. I came of age, married and began my adult working life in the San Francisco Bay Area. So many of my opinions might be typecast as a California point of view. Yet, those opinions were influenced by the wide-ranging backgrounds of the people I lived with in college, neighbored with in my first house, and worked closely with in my profession. I’ve also been affected by all the other places I lived, even those we only passed through on our way to California. And, of course, I was affected by my parent’s experiences in the Midwest, during the Great Depression and World War II. The historical record before that is dim. No doubt I’ve been influenced by a wide-ranging web of ancestral experiences and memories, and not all of them come directly through my bloodline.

Surely there are a number of places I’ve come from. The real question is, where am I going?

Listen to this entire story in the April Edition of "Unpolished Performances", a free podcast in the iTunes Store. Download it by clicking on this link.