Is that true? If we’re talking about the traditional bit of real estate, yeah, okay. But that reveals society’s rather limited, unimaginative concept of life and home.
I don’t remember ever feeling truly at home in the conventional world. I felt like I was playing a role, acting out someone else’s life. So there I was, in my nice suburban house, assimilated into a community, living the Dream, but unhappy and wanting to be somewhere else, needing to be someone else.
When they say “home is where the heart is” they usually mean it’s where the people you love and who love you are. I think it’s also where your mind and soul and happiness are. It’s where you’re your authentic self, regardless of external forces or circumstances. Home isn’t wherever you hang your hat. Home is within the person who wears the hat. Home is internal.
YES YES YES
ReplyDeleteI relate to not feeling at home in places people told me was my home. I called them home but they weren't. My van was truly my own place.
ReplyDeleteBut, I also relate to the saying that home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.
I believe that’s a Mark Twain quote and I almost cited it yesterday. That makes three great minds with one great thought. Keep on keepin’ on.
Delete"...they have to take you in" always sounded like they don't really want to. How about this instead? Home is where, when you need a place to go, they're more than happy to invite you in.
ReplyDeleteThat's how I feel about it.
DeleteIf they're taking me in because they HAVE to - well, I don't wanna be there.
I think Twain said it with a wink.
DeleteYour musings are becoming increasingly dense. "...limited, unimaginative" is such an expansive unspecificivity that brought to mind this song...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL71eMc1blw
The 4th comment down (on 1,Nov, 2020) by Harley Tutor, covers (in the sense of a music-group "covering"), I think, the concept for many Americans.
But we, as nomads, are of a diff ilk -- in some ways similar, if we can draw corrolaries at all, to the Gypsies of Europe. Though frequently reviled, their own sense of freedom was/is, as are we to the establishment, something of a threat as we demonstrate the pleasure(s) of an "unfettered" life. But much of our satisfaction is predicated on our capacity -- dare I say our proclivity -- to enjoy something outside (" outside" meant both as metaphor & euphemistically) of materialism.
Many see our lifestyle as rigorous. They NEED indoor plumbing, a mortgage; progeny.
I feel fortunate to be gifted with an innate ability to find my way home each evening. Some are humble, while others, as with the past week or so, are beyond magnificence. The moon and stars we see most nights are mentioned in Huxley's *Brave New World* as -- due to the lights of the city -- a forgotten element most people don't even think to miss.
We are fortunate to have escaped them all (excepting our vehicles, of course) -- their limited AND unimaginative.
I have never owned a house totally. The taxing authorities always seemed to have too say in what went on around my "home."
ReplyDeleteI must always remember that I wasn’t always this old and never before in my current world view. House, 9-5, progeny... been there; done that and pleased to have done so. Now it’s my turn.
ReplyDelete