Where are you from? Where is the place that when you think of home, it comes up in your imagination? Where is the place that when you get near it your heart begins to beat a little faster: a little faster because of the experiences you had there, because of the mistakes you made there, because of the people you loved there, because of the things you miss there?I am from Alpena, Michigan. It is a small town in northeastern Michigan. It is a town where I remember riding my bike to the Dairy Queen with friends. It is a town where I remember going to church every time the doors were open and loving the people there. It is a town where I loved people and was loved by people. It is a town where I hurt people and was hurt by people. It is the town where we buried my father and where my mother still lives. It is the town where I was married. It is a place where I long to be and where when I am there I feel right. It is a town where when I am there I am nervous that I will see someone from that life. I am different from the boy who lived in that town, but that boy is still with me. This is the difficulty of having a place that once was and that will never be again.
All of this came up this week as I decided to try and get in touch with my best friend from high school, Jon Carr. I wanted to see how his life was different. I think I also wanted him to see how my life was different. I think I wanted a little more of an anchor. I have no one in my life with whom I can say, "Do you remember how stupid I was in jr. high?" What is place? What is history? Do these things matter? Are we a culmination of the places, people and experiences that touch our life? Interesting.
4 comments:
During my 12 hour car ride from MN yesterday I listened to the FAMILY station, among others, on XM radio. One of the programs talked about living in a small town vs a "mega city" and the idea of community vs isolation....how many people don't know any of their neighbors at all and don't have any relationships and the danger of that. It made me glad to be from a place like Alpena. None of my kids live in that kind of place any more but they all have a church. That's the place where they can find the small town kind of community that my family has experienced here...people loving each other, caring about each other, being there for each other during joys and sorrows. Even in a church setting it takes work and being intentional but the results are well worth the effort.
OOPS! Correction needed! I meant to say "getting it" instead of "setting it". Now I've set the record straight.
Visiting my hometown, where I spent 18 years of my life in the same house, is like being in the Twilight Zone.
I feel like I never left while I'm there but at the same time so many things are slightly different it's feels as if it's a parallel dimension.
I have no place that I call "home" though. I don't feel at home in PA, in OH, or in MN and that's uncomfortable for me :(
Bill,
I have no place I call home either, for Alpena was just high school for me. Before Alpena we lived in three different cities. The other day my husband asked me where I want to be in five years and I said "somewhere where we'll be for a very long time." It's uncomfortable for me too.
Andy, while your closing questions may have been rhetorical, place, history, people are the essence of story. It is why I love to read. Knowing our story and having people around us who not only know it, but shared in it is a validation of Christ's continual work of redemption. I am glad we are part of eachother's stories.
Tricia
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