On one of Gary’s first visits in this marathon of visits to Australia, he was playing with his Blackberry Storms GPS function. He mentioned that he had programmed in ‘home’ to ‘work’ and it was having trouble mapping it. In my mind I was thinking that might be because there was this huge puddle of water in between the two, when I realized that he was referring to his hotel room. It made me sad to think that he was thinking of his hotel room as ‘home’.
I was taking Jessie back to Richmond State School this evening and realized that my parents had not called and they always like to talk to Jessie when she is here on Sundays. With them living in Arizona, they were probably not thinking about the time change, so I called and put Jess on the line.
They spoke about this and that and then my Mom must have asked her what she was doing. She replied: “I’m going home”. My heart broke just a little bit but more than that, it made me think that the definition of ‘home’ at the Hurst abode is a word that seems to be redefining itself on a daily basis.
I always thought that ‘home’, for me, was Dictionary.com’s definition number 2: “The place in which one's domestic affections are centered”, and a whole lot more: “Home is where the heart is” … “There is no place like home” … “Home is where you hang your hat” … "Home Sweet Home" ... “Home is where they have to take you in” …
But these days ‘home’ seems to be taking on a different meaning … more like definition number 1: “A house, apartment, or other shelter that is the usual residence of a person, family, or household”, and this disturbs me. Soon, there will be so many: Our house in Richmond, Texas, our house or apartment in Brisbane, Australia, San Jacinto House at Richmond State School, and an apartment or dorm for Ryan at whatever University he decides to attend.
We seem to be gaining ‘houses’ and losing a ‘home’ . I don’t really know what to do about this either. Right now the changes are enough to deal with; semantics seems to be the least of my problems.
I will just hope, for now, that my family can agree with Margaret Elizabeth Sanjster:
“There is nothing half so pleasant as coming home again.”
Where ever that home may be …
I was taking Jessie back to Richmond State School this evening and realized that my parents had not called and they always like to talk to Jessie when she is here on Sundays. With them living in Arizona, they were probably not thinking about the time change, so I called and put Jess on the line.
They spoke about this and that and then my Mom must have asked her what she was doing. She replied: “I’m going home”. My heart broke just a little bit but more than that, it made me think that the definition of ‘home’ at the Hurst abode is a word that seems to be redefining itself on a daily basis.
I always thought that ‘home’, for me, was Dictionary.com’s definition number 2: “The place in which one's domestic affections are centered”, and a whole lot more: “Home is where the heart is” … “There is no place like home” … “Home is where you hang your hat” … "Home Sweet Home" ... “Home is where they have to take you in” …
But these days ‘home’ seems to be taking on a different meaning … more like definition number 1: “A house, apartment, or other shelter that is the usual residence of a person, family, or household”, and this disturbs me. Soon, there will be so many: Our house in Richmond, Texas, our house or apartment in Brisbane, Australia, San Jacinto House at Richmond State School, and an apartment or dorm for Ryan at whatever University he decides to attend.
We seem to be gaining ‘houses’ and losing a ‘home’ . I don’t really know what to do about this either. Right now the changes are enough to deal with; semantics seems to be the least of my problems.
I will just hope, for now, that my family can agree with Margaret Elizabeth Sanjster:
“There is nothing half so pleasant as coming home again.”
Where ever that home may be …
4 comments:
I think about home a lot, too. I remember when, after I had been married for awhile, going to my mom's felt like going to her house and not mine. Yet I was writing an email today and kept referring to Mission Bend as my home ward. It's like your hometown. I was born in Austin and lived in Mission Bend until I was ten or eleven, but Sugar Land is my hometown. I think "where you go to high school" plays into that, but I don't really know. Maybe it is just hard to say, "I'm going to house," even though home is all those other things.
Home is definitely where your heart is. You'll just have to have a REALLY big heart for a while. I think an adventure to Australia in a few weeks will be right up your alley.
yes, that was always hard for me too, when my kids went off to college and started saying they were going "home" to their apartment. Waddya mean, HOME to the apartment! But I'm glad that they feel those kind of feelings for roommates too, or otherwise, college would be a world of hurt!
(dont freak out mom, its just Ryan posting this)
I think the movie garden state had a very good quote regarding this.
Zack Braffs character was contemplating this as well, and said:
Andrew Largeman: You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of the sudden even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone.
Sam: I still feel at home in my house.
Andrew Largeman: You'll see when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it's just gone. And you can never get it back. It's like you get homesick for a place that doesn't exist. I mean it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I miss the idea of it. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people who miss the same imaginary place.
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