Participation – Intercultural Experience 141even the slightest nod in the direction of a “Yes”, how happy we can be,
to have arrived, to know that it may well be possible not only to survive
but to thrive in a new place, despite the dark moments and difficulties
and the vacuum left in hearts untended by familial care.
A wise priest, from New Zealand as it happens, once told me that
moving to another land is like trying to transplant a mature plant and
placing it, roots and all in a different soil under another sky. There is no
guarantee that the plant will grow, that it will find in its new element the
conditions that it needs, that the soil will be deep and rich enough and
the sun and wind kind enough to sustain its life.
To come back to the beginning and return to the question of whether
we are made to move or to settle, it is clear that physically we are de-
signed to move, that we have what we need to survive, including the
ability to keep going over long distances, to adapt to new surroundings,
to defend ourselves, to search and find sustenance and water. At the
same time, although our human ‘roots’ are not visible, in very real ways
they exist; we are beholden to and shaped by our tribal, family and per-
sonal histories, genes, choices and events. Our roots are our support sys-
tem.^135 We survive not because we are single, isolated plants but be-
cause we are mobile creatures who are driven to seek out fellows of like
mind and spirit. The capacity, generosity and large heartedness to em-
brace the other, the duty to welcome is a test and a benchmark of our
humanity, of our ability to recognise, place ourselves with and walk in
the shoes of the other. In as much as we move, rely upon each other and
expect to be treated in a decent way, to be done as we are done by, such
a person as a stranger can no longer exist, since we all belong to and we
are interconnected with each other in this world of ours as global citi-
zens.
135
See the stimulating reflection on ‘Roots’ by Zara Nuru, 28 October 2013,
https://legalaliennyc.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/roots.