Thursday, May 27, 2004

Pure Circumstance

Being a person who has chosen, for love (a worthy reason indeed), not to live in her home country, it is strange that I do not allow myself to feel completely at home in the country in which I have chosen to live. But, I didn't necessarily choose to fall in love with a Dane in particular, thinking "oooh, Denmark." We were in Macedonia, so it would have been an odd place to go looking for a Dane. It was pure circumstance. Of course, with the twat [please pronounce this to yourself using the British pronunciation--it will sound much better to you, I promise] who is currently running the US, I am not necessarily sad that I don't live there. But, the whole thing leaves me with the sense that I don't really belong anywhere. I hate the notion of being a "citizen of the world," so that doesn't work for me. Where does one belong in a globalized world? What is home? Is it where your family and friends are? Your work? Your love? Your child's kindergarten? Your garden? Your language? I guess it's all of those things and they all happen to be situated somewhere in particular country somewhere. By pure circumstance.

3 comments:

Phyllis Hunt McGowan said...

Sunday morning archive-hunting :)
This question of home is a difficult one.
Is it any easier if it's your choice versus if you were forced our of your homeland for political or financial reasons?
Either way you won't go back there; either way you've lost a strong grip on a sense of place and being rooted.
I think it might be harder when you have children; you wish to not only tell them about your country but for them to feel that it's a part of their history too.
In the end it's up to the individual to determine what home means. Perhaps for some it's where their roots are. For others it's where ever they can find a good life.
I hope you find an answer to that question!

julochka said...

that was a really old one! even i didn't remember it. but, actually, it still holds true. :-) and i was even thinking along those lines recently..during one of those times when i scribbled in my little waves of inspiration notebook "hearing danish feels like home." hmmm...maybe home is whatever you make it...and you're right, it's something you think more about when you have children and want that person to have a feeling of a place that is home.

i might have to revisit this again, thank you for reminding me of it! :-)

BrightBoy said...

May 27, 2004, was an extremely significant date in my life. It's so strange to be reading something that someone wrote on that particular Thursday, and the theme of the post, the nature of home, is a very fitting one.

I have spent a good deal of time since May 27, 2004, pondering over what home is.

I still don't know where mine will be.