Musings on Home

** Sorry. A crazy week caused my brain to glitch and I posted this in my professional website instead of here in my Blogger account. I was wondering why no one had commented! **

Hello students! I am going to try to address each of your questions here. So, here we go!

When we received this assignment from Dr. Rice, I began thinking about home and what it means to me. It was a more challenging idea than I had expected. When I first began thinking about "home," these five words came to mind: house, comfort, ownership, family, and personalization. I was speaking with my husband about this today, and that conversation caused my ideas to shift a bit. At first, home represented an intersection between a physical location where I live and the emotional fingerprint of that place. For example, when my husband and I bought our house six years ago, it was special because it was our first house; however, it did not initially feel like a home. But there were things about it that were homey right from the start. I felt my aunt's presence in the breeze blowing through a large tree in the backyard and the living room reminded me of my house growing up; however, it wasn't until we personalized the house by adding decorations, furniture, and memories that it felt like a home. So in that way home does feel closely related to my identity. I take pride in being a homeowner and in how we have chosen to present our home. I feel that others get a sense of who we are when they enter our house. People have said that our house is very relaxing and that they feel comfortable there when they visit, which is part of what "home" means to me, and it's part of our identity. We like to entertain, so when people say they feel welcome and comfortable in our home we appreciate that.

I also believe that home is the only place I can be mindful and at ease during chaos and confusion. Right now, my life is hectic. I am a full time professor, a doctoral student at Texas Tech, a wife, and a mother of a 7 month old boy. My life is truly chaos. But as busy as my life is, I really only allow myself to relax and focus when I am in my house. I think this is because we have created an environment or habitat that makes us happy. We control it and it is filled with memories and experiences that have made us who we are. So again I return to my home being a part of my identity. So I suppose homelessness, for me, would be not having a place that reflects who I am and where I can feel truly relaxed. This is not to say that I am always relaxed when I am home; but I am most able to be myself and kick up my feet when I am at home. Culturally speaking, homelessness here is more about not having a dwelling space to call your own. We have homeless shelters, which provide physical spaces for those in need, but the inhabitants don't own these spaces either in a monetary or personal sense. But there is something beyond that. For instance, when I travel, my hotel room can feel like home. It is not Home with a capital H - that is reserved for the place I have purchased and where my family lives - but there is something about making even a hotel room my own. Right now, I am actually in a hotel with my family. Our stuff is scattered around and when we first arrived we set to work putting some things in drawers, setting up a crib for the baby, and hanging up a few things. Once that was done, it became home, albeit temporary.

I believe language can have a similar affect. My family and close friends have a discourse - a way of speaking, inside jokes, and past experiences we can reference - that make sense to us alone. When I am with these people, I feel like I am home. I suppose this does, to some extent, trump the idea of location. Being with these people can be "home," but that is not what I generally think of as "home."

Finally, for the cultural questions. It's hard to explain what it feels like to be an American because I don't know anything different. It just feels normal to me. With that said, I dislike patriotism and tend to think negatively of people when they are extremely patriotic. This is because I generally associate patriotism with blind faith in our country, which often removes people's ability to think critically. But this does not meant that I am not appreciative of the freedoms that I have here. However, it also makes me sad to know how far behind our educational system (especially for children) is when viewed globally. We are only casually required to learn another language and our population tends to be very naive of global events. Other parts of the world are so much more aware of what is going on outside of their own cultural bubble, and there I think America has failed overall.

I don't know a ton about India, but I have a positive impression of it. I have heard that it is very busy and chaotic, which doesn't sound like something I would love to be immersed in every day; however, I love Indian food and the colorful clothing I see represented in images. One of my favorite movies is The Darjeeling Limited by Wes Anderson, which takes place in India. Although I'm sure it's not completely accurate, I love the country as I see it through Anderson's eyes. The beauty of the people and the land, the faith, and the genuine spirit of the people are all very appealing to me. I would love it if you shared what being Indian feels like to you.

I hope that answers your questions! Thanks for such thoughtful questions. :)

Shidish - What are the five things that come to mind when you hear the word home?