If there’s one thing I’ve learned from reading Tam’s blog over the years, it’s to never let your good material get lost in an away game. Over at Sarge’s Place, he put up a thought provoking post about the German concept of Heimat, which is kind of like the home where you feel at home.
Anyway, pondering this all day led me to post this bit of thinky:
“At this point in life, I’m not sure where my heimat would be. I couldn’t get out of Southern California fast enough when I got old enough. Spent fourteen years around Seattle, but that was never home-home. Just the place I worked, and that my wife and I grew our family from just the two of us to all seven of us.
Now we’ve been in South Dakota for over three years. The kids are putting down roots, enjoying some stability, and starting to grow up. I’m joining groups. Is this home?
When I close my eyes and think of home, I don’t see cornfields and endless horizons. It’s not Mount Ranier or the Space Needle either.
It’s snow on the San Gabriel Mountains in winter, it’s driving through orange groves to get to Ventura beach, and it’s a cool desert breeze in autumn. But that California barely exists anymore. What’s left isn’t home, it’s a hollow husk that used to be home.
Maybe SoDak will be heimat for me in a few more years. Maybe I haven’t found it yet. Guess I’ll know it when I’m there. “
Further pondering came added the thought that maybe I’ll know in ten or fifteen years, should we still be settled in SoDak at that point. Or maybe I won’t know I’m home until this life is over. That’s okay too.