Humans migrate everywhere, and sometimes we seek to return “home”

Growing up listening to stories of so-and-so moving back to their place of origin after many years, even decades, of living elsewhere struck me as odd. Why in the world would anyone who moved away to where they wanted to live ever want to move back to their land of birth? After all, such people have put down new roots, mined and developed new career and lifestyle opportunities, and networked themselves into new communities. Why would they return to a place where everyone they knew from their youth was old, dead, or had themselves also relocated to new places? Some people do move later in life, but not to return to place of origin but to be closer to their adult children and grandchildren. Ironically, the kids sometimes end up if not in the old homeplace at least in an area closer to it than otherwise.

After all, as the late Thomas Wolfe once pointed out, “You can’t go home again.” He alludes to the many changes and transformations in one’s self, in other people, and to home itself. What was home is no more even if it looks the same from a distance. Everything has changed even if it seems nothing truly has shifted one way or another. Given enough time, people die, more are born, civilizations rise and fall, and continents pull apart to slide across the planet or back beneath changing seas. Continue reading →