Dreaming of a home
Many people move to towns and
cities with the hope of an easier life. One of the big aspirations is that
one day; they will finally have a place called home. But with each grinding day, they realize that life isn’t moving forward fast enough. Each month brings its
own unforeseen and uncalculated expenditures which makes saving for a home so
very difficult. Also the price of land and construction materials are
shooting up, much faster than the increase of their incomes. So, they stay on in
a rented house, with no sense of belonging and a kind of dying-longing for
the dream home.
Not so for certain people. They simply
receive it in a platter. There is no longing, planning and developing of a
home. Dads and Moms do that job for them. They simply inherit a home.
Still some people think that
the universe is their home. So, wherever they may be, in a foreign land or in a
rented house, they do not feel that they do not belong there. Even in a
foreign pagan city, they seek the welfare of the city.
The aspiration for a place called
home is legitimate. But we should be careful not to idolize it. Here, the third category has an important message for
our times. The second category has the real risk of missing the opportunity to
work our own way forward in life.
Thanks for this thoughtful post. I definitely don't fit in to the second category but have some of both the first and the third. To me there is a big difference between 'home' and 'house' which you also seem to capture in your post. Home is definitely much bigger than a house. One may not have a house but feel homely in a particular place or have a house and not feel at home. The opposite of the third category could be 'no house' and 'don't feel at home.' Is it possible to feel at home in one place and yet miss home (place where you are born and grew up, where your root is)?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment and supplementing the post. Yes. It is possible to settle down in a place with all the comfort and luxury, yet still miss one's home town/village.... But it so happens that on returning with lots of nostalgia, one finds that it's just not the same anymore.
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