Saturday, April 9, 2011

#8: H is for Home

Home is an interesting concept. Is it a building? A town? A region? One or more people?

Where is my home? I have a lot of places that may qualify.

My childhood home was a little house on Route 99 between Kennebunk and Sanford, Maine. I moved around to some other places, but they don't carry the notion of 'home' the same way.

For a town, it's a bit tougher. I typically think of Kennebunk, but I lived in Sanford for four years, and that has a distinct feeling of home as well. I think that Kennebunk was my first home, but I grew up in Sanford. (7th-10th grades are an interesting time.)

Region - I still think of myself as a Mainer. I was born in California, I've lived outside Maine longer than I lived there, but it's still where my attitudes were formed. (With the help of a mother who grew up near LA, so I wasn't quite normal even there.)

People - I suspect that's why I don't think of anywhere I've lived post-college as 'home' the same way - because the home since then isn't a place, it's the people in it. It's my wife, and now our children. Gilbert was going to be our forever home, but it didn't work out that way...and that's okay, because we're together here. Some day we'll find a house to buy here, but the house still won't be home...the people in it will be.

No comments: