Homeville

Matt couldn't abide the bourgeois banality of our previous blog title (web address is still the same until our technological skill catches up with our social critique), so we are changing it to Homeville. Inspired by one of the cottages on our block, the name is appropriate in so many ways. The idea of home has been a preoccupation of mine since I was a nomadic child. My mother always said, where ever you are is home. I wanted to believe her and I have been trying ever since to make the zen-like philosophy of the snail my own, but with minimal success. I now tell Jake a variation on that same theme whenever he feels homesick: where ever we are together is our home.

When Matt and I were married Jeremy spoke elequently about the idea of "home," of how place and love and ritual and community are all home builders. Matt and I ended our vows to each other with the phrase: "You are home." And we continue to aspire to making part of the work of our partnership building the concentric circles of home, bringing into the sphere of comfort and familiarity more people and places and ideas. Homeville represents for us the challenge of moving beyond our ordinary view of home, beyond the well-worn shelter that holds our treasures, beyond the town we know, past ancenstral places. It is the challenge of maintaining a core of intimacy and also being a global citizen with a sense of compassion for and commitment to people we haven't met and can't understand. Like my mother's wisdom, its an aspiration more than a reality, but its a worthy aspiration; and it's one that helps us find peace and pleasure on this faraway little corner of earth that reminds us so much of home.

If you are reading this, if you have this address, you are already part of our home. And for all our cosmopolitan strivings, we still miss "home," and would love to hear from you. This homepage is not on a cul-de-sac; we chose this location for the two-way traffic. So leave us a comment. It doesn't need to be crafted or clever. Tell us what you had for dinner or what you are reading or what makes you different from other mammals.