tie oneself to

In R&B, especially, the need to tie oneself to a place is virtually nonexistent; home towns are simply footnotes to bigger stories.

Here it is useless to tie oneself to the physical symbol of a cross.

It was the sea, he said to himself—the sea, that took all and gave nothing; the sea, mother of all injustice and misery; the sea, whose service was to tie oneself to the devil's tail and whisk forever about the world, sweating in doldrums, freezing in snow squalls, hanging on to lashing yards, blinded, soaked, benumbed, the gale above, death below.

It is of little use to have bowed to slang and shoulder-straps, if it be only to tie oneself to a cradle.