No Place Like "Home"

The 2003 Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines home as:

1. one's place of residence

2. the social unit formed by a family living together

3. familiar or usual setting

4. place of origin 

6. the objective in various games: home plate

Excluding number six, I suppose that the concept of home typically represents itself in those ways.  Yet, the phrases seem so simple.  When I started this post, I could not even describe home, possibly because emotions are stronger than words. . . . or, maybe home is not a physical place.  Maybe we construct home and make it our own by circumstance.

Though I appreciated the love, the reprieve, the familiar details, and the abundance of memories attached to the home I returned to this past weekend, at the same time, something felt right about returning to AU.  It is a terrible thing, but whenever I travel somewhere else, I usually do not become home-sick because the new place becomes home, and I cannot imagaine living anywhere else.

So, in particular, what makes D.C. special?  Over the weekend, I constantly receieved the approving, knowing, silent nod from family to my student status as a D.C. "wonk" (just kidding, "wonk" wasn't mentioned, except for the time my grandma and I discussed Erin's article on marketing colleges in AWOL, but that's another story . . .).  Yet, it not just about D.C. with the monuments, Georgetown, and some little white house at the center of it all.  It's about D.C. and the crowded Metro, wide sidewalks, people selling roses in traffic, and our own TDR jams.

I guess stereotyping has its purpose; categories are always easier to digest.  Yet, the details and aspects that defy the stereotype are what make the world interesting.  Look at cultures (i.e. Native American, sound familiar?).  Look at whole countries.  Though we have the tendency to be proud of our differences, in this way, we are all the same.  The concept of "self"/"other" has come up numerous times this semester, but maybe the divide is only as bold as we construct it to be.



(GOOGLE wizard of oz home . . . makes you wonder what Dorothy could have meant.)