Zann Cannon Goff is a talented landscaper whose first word was “flower” and who went through many incarnations before getting where he was meant to be. With a boyhood that was sometimes isolated for geographical reasons as well as emotional and often migratory.
His mother was a child of the 60s, who raised him as a single parent, told him he could be anything he wanted to be, and moved so many times that Zann went to five different schools in the first grade alone so his young life was, although filled with his mother’s love, without deep roots. Making friends was a challenge.
Zann talks about spending childhood days in the woods when there were no other children to keep him company, and about being on his own as a fifth-grader when his mother was ill. He talks with appreciation about myriad creative jobs he held and why he decided to go back to school after having early on decided against college, about finding direction, using his talents and getting a degree in math. He found his father after a 33-year separation and forged a bond that is a tribute to family affection, trumping huge differences in lifestyle and sexual orientation. Listening to Zann talk about his life is a good lesson in the value of courage, love, gratitude, honesty and a very good sense of humor as the sum of the parts that add up to a beautifully integrated whole.
As far as his love letters, there are, of course, so many possibilities all worth hearing about. As it happens, Zann used to write letters often. Hopefully he will do some more.
There is some real poetic justice in seeing that Zann’s first word did hold a promise of a wonderful adulthood. He is now sinking roots. Literally.
