texas identity – Kelly Yandell

Fromness, noun

Pronunciation: [fruhm-nis]

1. A concept of one’s identity as defined by place, not necessarily being the place of one’s origin or current abode.

2. The conceptual answer to the question, “Where are you from?” not to be confused with “Where are you in from?” “Where do you hale from?” “Where are your people from?” “Where do you live?” or “Where do you stay at?” and is usually an answer derived from a combination of the answers to all of these questions, with extreme deference given to exclusions and embellishments based on either negative or positive experiential memories.

3. A self construct influenced by time, place, landscape, heat, cold, nurturing, nature, love, hate, taste, scent, feeling, family, marriage, child-rearing, attitude, and the desired impression to be made on the questioner.

Caution in use: The answer to the question “Where are you from?” is often complete self-delusion, though usually with a grounding in geography. Fromness is a concept with very squirrelly edges, has roots in both experience and memory, which are rarely perfectly aligned with regard to accuracy. Care should be taken in analyzing the answer to this question, with pre-acknowledgment that it is often a question which may require the subject of the question a half hour to fully explain, and is rarely a simple matter of geography. Therapy may be indicated for the subject of the question, but one should utterly refrain from any such suggestion. Nodding and smiling are safe should you find yourself across from a subject in a Fromness fugue. One merely making small talk is cautioned to use a more specific question such as “Where were you born?” or “Where do you live now?” to receive a brief answer. “Fromness” is a concept that can evoke joy or pain, and is to not be inquired about lightly, and it is also the source occasionally of creative storytelling with no basis in fact whatsoever. Particular care should be taken in analyzing an answer to an inquiry into Fromness made of politicians, who are serial abusers of the Theory of Fromness and will capitalize on warm and tender feelings evoked in a questioner or listener from a truly well crafted Fromness narrative.

“Where am I from? Good Lord, how much time do you have?”

My answer to the question “Where are you from?” is a doozie. Much like “How are you?” in nature, “Where are you from?” is usually a question that someone asks wanting a one location answer so they can move on without getting too involved. It’s essentially rhetorical. For me, From is with a capital F. It’s a big deal. It is an opening of a floodgate. I want to know you when I ask that question. I want to place you in a framework of Fromness. To me, asking someone “Where are you From” is akin to saying “Tell me your life story.”

Where you were born is not necessarily where you’re From. My brother was born in Hawaii and raised in Texas. He lived in Hawaii for one year as an infant. He’s now a six foot three petroleum geologist who lives in Oklahoma City, smokes an occasional cigar and can sometimes be found playing haunting chords on an old guitar. When someone asks him “Where are you from?” he does not say Hawaii. Yet, being born in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on an island is damn sure part of his Fromness and might explain a little about why his friends in high school referred to him as Cool Breeze. There’s something there. Hawaii is in his Fromness. Being From a place is akin to being of a place, a concept of belonging even if you never really fit in or got to stay. Places touch you, leave a mark, change you forever, for good and bad, too. Texas surely left a mark on that boy and he is as apt to say he is a Texan who lives in Oklahoma, and it’s coming on a quarter of a century.