On Roots

Roots can have a variety of meanings:

• The anchoring structure of plants or body parts as hair and teeth
• The primary source of origin
• The essential part or base element
• Point of family ancestry
• The note on which to build a music cord
• The part of a word carrying the main meaning and forming the basis of the word by adding prefixes and suffixes

In our computerized world, root directories form the foundation of the operating system. When the power comes to the operating system, the computer begins to boot by looking for the primary operating directories – the root directories. Much like the trunk of the tree, the root directories lead to the subdirectories like branches of a tree. However, with the initial power source, these operating branches remain silent – actually lifeless.

The words Bishop Mark Hanson of the Evangelic Lutheran Church of America in this article sparked these thoughts and this post. (For the sake of disclosure, the ELCA is where my membership resides.)

Christians just began Lent – a season of reflection and renewal. With the Lenten season in mind, Bishop Hansen asked the following questions that (at least to me) are good questions for all – for theists, atheists, and agnostics – for Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and others.

• Would you describe your life as rooted or rootless?
• What are the signs for you that help discern whether we are rooted or rootless?

Opening image is the property of FractalAngel