In a conversation I had recently with a close friend, this topic of roots came up again. And again I wondered at the obsession with roots...
Roots are what go deep into the soil - any soil, any place - and hold the plant firm against all the vagaries of nature.
Many of us are immigrants - to another locality, city/town/village, country. Now when we go to where we have decided to make our home, we need to put down roots firm enough to deal with the vagaries of life.
Roots of plants or humans, in effect need something big - bigger than itself/themselves to get rooted into, and in which they can grow.
Roots need large areas of earth into which they can go deep down and find succor for the plant. They also need to spread out deep in the earth, in order to keep the plant firmly standing. Of course the part of the plant that is above the earth also has its work cut out for it, but without the security of firm roots, the plant will just droop and fall.
So too humans. Humans also need something larger than themselves in which they can be rooted. This would be in the form of a belief system - religious or secular, conventional or created. A belief system is the only thing that would keep humans grounded and rooted, and which would prevent them from falling/collapsing/disaster. While daily life goes on, and we work to find our place in the sun, it is our belief system that we draw on for succor and strength.
I've deliberately not mentioned culture, simply because as immigrants while we have our own culture, gradually the culture of the place we are in mixes itself into ours and, till we sort ourselves out, there is a lot of confusion and pain. With a belief system, there is no discrepancy. It is something you live by - you are not influencing anyone, and it prevents you from being influenced by every wind that blows, or every storm that occurs.