Friday, December 19, 2008

Home is where the Heart is

Alright clever person that coined that phrase, what do you do when your heart is sliced in two? What then? Hmm?

Grégoire and I flew home for the holidays. Home. I suppose it would less politically and emotionally charged to just call it Seattle. Eight months after moving to Paris I catch myself often referring to Seattle as home. Should I be worried that I don't always refer to Paris as my home? Can you have two homes? If you live in one city and call another city home is it considered cheating? How long will it take for me to consider Paris home with a capital H and Seattle a place where I used to live? Do I even want that?

Oh la la. That's quiet enough of that. No more exhausting self-analyzing questions for today. From here on I am officially eliminating home from my vocabulary and using the cities' proper names. There. Problem solved.  

3 comments:

Unknown said...

We've been away from Seattle for over 4 years now and I have finally stopped calling it Home. But it will always be my hometown. How's that?

Cyrielle said...

Homesikness in Paris ???
I totally see what you mean Mary, and I agree with Kristin Seattle will always be your hometown.
For the moment I don't see myself stop calling Nantes home because this where i grew up, where my family and friends are living. This the city and the Country i am attached to. This is also my culture.
I might stop calling it home the day i will become a US citizen and i will have my own home in Seattle with stories to say about my children :-)
bise

Jen said...

bonsoir,
i happened upon your blog recently, and i can't believe how similar many of my impressions and wonderment have been in my french experience. i'm from nebraska and have lived in franche comte for almost 2 years. i just got engaged to my french boyfriend (with a very french name- Claude ;) ) and i'm in the process of laying my roots here- indefinitley. it's hard to have 2 'homes' but i always try to remind myself that i'm so blessed to have DOUBLE the greatness that HOME provides. keep writing, i enjoy your perspectives and find them very reassuring. :) bisous, jen