Day 81: Search for meaning

I was born a wandering soul among wandering souls. In my life i have moved no less than 25 times and it seems as though i’ve passed this on. I come from generations on my mother’s mother’s side that has moved multiple times, leaving this world in lands different than those that welcomed them into the world.

Transportation made this movement possible. But why is such movement necessary in the first place? If the impetus of their journeys’ was like other Black folks of their era, it would have been in the pursuit of opportunities in industrializing cities. They said that Georgia Harding was a miner in Missouri who gave birth to Eula. Together they moved to Chicago where Eula gave birth to Georgia, my grandmother. Granny gave birth to my mother in Chicago. And at some point all moved to Detroit, where my mom brought me into the world. I moved to Toledo and gave birth to my daughter. And together we moved a few places, but landed back in Detroit, where she gave birth to her daughter. And now, none of us live in Detroit or Chicago or Missouri.

A family of migrants we are. A family that never stayed in one place long enough to allow roots to grow deep. If i were to only look at my individual life, nothing interesting emerges. I know why i moved from one place to another. But what i wouldn’t be able to explain is an inner drive to be in motion, a feeling that i recognize after being in one place for a couple of years. Though i didn’t uncover an answer in genealogical research, the pattern that i saw emerging allowed me to see myself as part of a broader flow of history, connected to generations of movement. And my questions shifted from the individual to the collective. What does this movement over six generations say about our family? The easy answer is each sought economic opportunities. But what if there is more? Might each generation been on a symbolic search for purpose and meaning? A search with hopes that new contexts of life and learning might offer new insights?